Heir Of The IceJin: Book III
by blacksheep998
Summary: Part 3 in the HotIJ Trilogy! I know that there has to be more than 2 people in the whole world who care... Come on, R&R Update COMPLETE
1. A New Begining

Disclaimer: I keep getting more and more of my own original characters, but a couple stolen ones will pop up from time to time. See if u can spot them and win… nothing… I'm too poor to afford a prize.

A hooded figure with a long staff walked the dark streets. The black cloak covered it in inky darkness from head to toe. The widely spaces street lamps did little to illuminate the darkness and the figure moved between them like a shadow. It did not want to be seen, and was doing a good job avoiding peering eyes.

Without warning, the silence of the city night was shattered by gunfire. The dark figure looked over towards the sound, hesitated for only a moment, and then leapt fifty feet up to a rooftop. It ran and jumped over a few buildings to where it could get a good look at the battle in the streets below.

Dark eyes surveyed the scene. A couple of the local street gangs were fighting again, it was nothing to concern the cloaked watcher. 

On this planet, the local sentient species were cat-like humanoids called Felons. They had human faces and torsos, but cat-like ears and tails. Their hands and feet were also rather paw-like. 

The adults were a decent lot, intelligent and quick in a fight. But the young were a different story. They formed tight-knit prides that roamed the cities in nocturnal battles over who-knows-what. Their parents, who lost interest in them when they could leave the home, let it go on so long as they kept it away from the adults. They felt it weeded the weak from the gene pool. Those that survived their chaotic childhood settled down and joined the mainstream society around the age of twenty.

But the hooded figure wasn't interested in local customs, he had learned them when he arrived on the planet months ago. He was about to leave them to battle when he spotted something. An injured Felon, about eighteen years old, was trying to hide in some trash near the edge of the battle zone. He would probably have been safe, he was hidden from street level, but the battle was moving closer to him. He wasn't part of either pride, and was too old to join one, so he would be killed no matter who found him.

Local customs or not, that injured Felon had not done anything to either of those prides. He was not about to be killed by them if the dark watcher had anything to say about it.

He jumped and landed in the center of the battlefield. "This is the only warning I will give. Stop now or I will make you stop, permanently."

All fighting stopped while both sides tried to figure out who would be crazy enough to get involved in a fight between Felon prides. Custom demanded that they put their fight on hold until the intruder was destroyed. They turned from their battle to the newcomer. Several fired their primitive, slugthrower guns, hoping to end it quickly. But the stranger flipped his staff and smacked the bullets back at their owners. None of them were seriously hurt, but all their guns were destroyed.

Seeing that that was a dead end, they rest attacked head-on. The hooded figure was a blur of activity, leaping, kicking and spinning. It was over in seconds. Every one of the Felons were laid out on the pavement, but none were dead. They stood up and ran from the stranger, they wouldn't be back for some time.

His work done, he went to check on the one he had saved, only to be disappointed. The poor guy was dead, a bullet had gone through his trash pile and clear through his chest.

He turned to go, when he heard a rasping gasp. "Please… Help me…"

The injured Felon was reaching towards him. "I can't, it's beyond whatever medicines I can use."

"Please." The youngster struggled to move closer, wincing through the pain. "I'll do anything."

The cloaked person sighed. "There is one thing I could do, but I warn you that you may not like the consequences."

"Anything…"

"If I heal you, you will be stronger that ever before, you might even approach my strength." The hooded figure said slowly. "Until I train you and I can be certain that you will only use that power to help those in trouble you will not be allowed to leave."

"I will serve you to the best of my abilities." The Felon answered quickly.

"No, you must serve everyone to the best of your abilities. You will be bound to always protect the weak and helpless, like I tried to protect you now. Even when it turns out like this."

"What if I try to get away, or I fail your tests?"

"Simple, I'll kill you."

He smiled. "It's not like I really have anything to lose."

"You would be surprised how long someone can be held on the edge of death. I've seen it go on for months, sometimes years, before the victim finally dies."

The Felon swallowed and nodded. "I… accept…"

The cloaked man held up his arms and slid back his sleeves. The Felon's eyes widened when he saw the hands, they were long, with thin fingers that had no claws.

From one wrist grew a long blade that looked like bone. The other hand's palm slid along the edge, making a perfectly clean cut. Purple blood started to drip slowly from the wound. "Are you sure about this? There's no going back. I could just kill you now, I would make it quick."

"I want… to live…" The Felon gasped.

"This will hurt, a lot." The hooded man warned, then let a single drop of blood drip into the gaping wound on the Felon's chest.

The cat-like alien screamed and convulsed on the pavement. He rolled and kicked as his arms and legs spazimed in pain.

The cloaked figure watched in a detached way as the gaping wound on the young alien's chest closed, almost like magic.

When he had finally stopped twitching in pain, he looked at the spot where the hole in his chest used to be. "I don't suppose you can sow too…" Fingering the hole in his shirt.

"Sorry. What's your name, kid?" The hooded figure asked.

"I'm Traitin." He answered.

"Nice to meat you Traitin. My name is Cryos." He pushed back his hood and Traitin almost passed out. There was no way that was a Felon face. "Well, Traitin. Follow me, we have a lot of work ahead of us."


	2. New Friends and Foes

Disclaimer: You know how it works. 

Traitin followed Cryos through the dark streets. He obviously couldn't believe he had met a real alien. Felons had encountered aliens before, one member of the species had even been accepted into the exclusive 'Green Lantern Core.' So it wasn't a complete shock to him.

An ancient species called the Elders had invented rings that could channel vast amounts of power. The people who wore them, the so-called 'Green Lanterns,' were actually strong enough to cause Cryos some trouble. If he got going though, the lanterns barely slowed him down. One member from each species under the protection of the Lantern Core got a power ring. Cryos had had several confrontations with them in the past, they were rather leery of anyone from outside the Core, and as a rule he tried to stay off their radar.

Cryos led the way through the back alleyways, twisting and turning in the darkness so much that even Traitin, who had spent his whole life in these streets, got confused and lost.

Finally, he stopped. "Here we are." He announced and opened a sewer cover.

"You live in a sewer?" Traitin asked.

"I know, its a little cliché, but it works." Cryos took the entire distance to the wet, slimy concrete in one jump. Traitan used the ladder.

Cryos held his wooden staff out in front and the small glass ball on top started to glow. Traitin's eyes glowed in the yellowish light as Cryos started off down the dark tunnel. 

"How does that staff work?" he asked.

"It's made from wood from the Leech Tree. The tree lives by sucking the life force out of everyone around it. I installed some gadgets in this branch and they're powered by the energy it sucks from me. It's also indestructible so long as it can use my power."

"Isn't it bad that it's sucking away your life force?"

"It would be if I wasn't immortal. This staff is a pretty small piece of the tree anyway, even a normal person would have to hold it for weeks or even months before it caused any ill effects. But I'm not normal. My life force can never run out, and I can never die."

"Awesome!" Traitan shouted. "You can live forever! That's so cool!"

Cryos stopped walking. "You would think so, but think: you would have to watch your loved ones die of old age, one by one, knowing that you can ever join them in the afterlife. Eventually you get over it and have another family. But it happens again. Every time you find someone and get to like them, they die of old age and you never change."

Traitin didn't look so excited now. "Has this happened before?"

"Not yet, but I've been separated from everyone I know for the last ten years. I've had lots of time to think." His eyes glassed over. "Eventually in trillions of years the last stars will burn out, all life will die except for me. I will be completely alone for countless trillions of years until finally, matter itself begins to break down. Maybe then I can join my loved ones in the afterlife…"

"How old ARE you?" The Felon asked.

Cryos started walking again. "Not that old just yet. Only sixty-five, even without immortality old age wouldn't have gotten me yet." He got a faraway gaze. "But I would be dead, many times over. It must be twenty times at least…" He suddenly stopped. "Oh crap, I almost forgot-"

His words were cut off when a tiny blur zipped out of the shadows and latched to the side of Traitan's neck. He had just enough time to cry out in surprise before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the floor.

Traitan slowly regained conciseness.

"I'm sorry about that." Cryos said from above him. "Are you feeling ok?"

Traitin was about to scream out, of course he shouldn't feel good, he was just knocked out! But as he tried to sit up he realized that he actually DID feel good. Very good in fact. "Actually, yeah… What just happened?"

"I wasn't thinking and my security system went off."

"That was a security system?!"

Cryos smiled. "Traitan, meat Mazzark." He held up his hand to show a tiny dark green creature. 

It had six limbs, but stood on only four legs, each ended with a pair of blobby toes that had sticky pads on them. The front end of the creature's body pulled up into an almost humanoid torso. It had two tiny arms, they each had two small fingers just like the toes and were tipped with the same sticky pads. The creature's head, which had no visible mouth, was shaped like a crescent, pointed at both ends with narrow eyes and neck towards the front end and a long, curved crest arching up and back. The crest had a number of horizontal stripes on it. They didn't circle all the way around the crest, but were only on the top side. But the part that caught his attention was the tail. It was long and thin, but tipped with a wicked-looking stinger.

Traitan felt his neck and found a bump, it felt exactly like an insect sting.

"I found Mazzark on a world where his people, the Lalz, were the main food supply for several other species." Cryos explained. "I taught them how to fight and to make weapons. Turns out they're highly intelligent, it just took awhile to realize it since they're language is so bizarre." He looked at Mazzark. "Traitan is our new friend, apologize for hurting him."

The little creature looked up at him and the stripes on its head started to flash with light. They formed complex patterns of chasers and flashers that raced across the creature's head.

"I don't care that he feels fine now, just because your poison has a mild euphoric effect on most species doesn't mean you couldn't have hurt him. Besides, you had no idea on the dosage. You could easily have killed him. Apologize to him."

Mazzark turned to Traitan, he glared with his tiny eyes and blinked out a pattern of lights.

Traitan had no idea what he said, but judging from the look in his eyes it wasn't very nice. 

Cryos made a face. "I guess that will do for now, but you two are going to have to get along in the future. Shake on it."

Neither of them moved.

"Go ahead." Cryos insisted.

Traitan slowly reached out to the tiny alien.

Mazzark grabbed the Felon's paw-like hand and bent a finger backwards.

Traitan screamed in pain and tried to pull his hand away, but the little creature was amazingly strong and had him pinned. He felt a sudden surge of power from inside himself and suddenly he flipped his hand up into the air, launching the Lalz at the ceiling, where he stuck with all six limbs and scurried away.

"Mazzark!" Cryos cried out. "That's it! No dinner for you!" He sighed. "He'll be fine, he's just jealous."

"He almost broke my finger!" Traitan shouted.

"Did he? Looked more like you almost broke his entire body when you launched him like that. You threw him awfully hard."

Traitan thought so to. "How did I do that? It was like I suddenly became stronger."

"You did, you now have a tiny portion of my strength, my life force. If you train and develop it you can become amazingly strong one day. That's why I have to train you myself until I'm sure you aren't going to hurt anyone. So, would you rather train or eat first?"

For the first time Traitan looked around the room. Even ignoring the smell, it was pretty obvious it was in the sewers. Tables were made from slabs of concrete piled on top of each other. An old, badly damaged couch was by the far wall. The room was dimly lit by decorative strings of lights, judging from the exposed wires, they were dug out of the trash and strung back together. In the far corner, a large, old and rusty refrigerator hummed softly.

Somehow, the atmosphere didn't make Traitan hungry.

"What's involved in this training?" he asked.

"Not much at first, some light sparring and teaching you the basics of hand-to-hand combat, just to see what you can do. If I decide to train you we'll move into high-gravity workouts and maybe even some serious matches."

The Felon gulped. "Well, I guess we should get started…"


	3. Hidden Pathway

Disclaimer: Except for the part about the Green Lanterns this is currently all-original. Wow, go me.

"Well, first thing's first." Cryos said. "Let's see what you've got. Come at me."

"What!?" Traitin asked.

"Attack me. Don't worry, you couldn't hurt me if you wanted to."

Traitin stood up slowly and then took a swing at Cryos with his retractable claws. But the alien warrior vanished at the last moment.

"Huh?" Traitin mumbled and turned to look around for Cryos.

Cryos suddenly appeared before him. "No, much too slow, that won't do at all."

Traitin attacked again. This time Cryos blocked with one hand and then backhanded the Felon across the small room.

He landed in the pile of rags in the corner. A small sound came from directly above his head and he looked up to see Mazzark clapping his little hands. His eyes seemed to be laughing, despite his being mute.

Traitin growled and leapt to his feet. He dashed at Cryos and slashed repeatedly. Each time swinging harder than the last as his anger pushed him on. Cryos stayed one move ahead of him though, easily dodging every blow.

At least, he did until Traitin kicked a rock across the ground at his feet. Cryos sidestepped to avoid it but ended up walking into Traitin's claw swipe. He looked up with a little surprise and four red lines on his face.

Cryos smiled and the scratches vanished. "Good job, you used your anger but didn't let it control you. To top it off, you have a lot of potential power-wise."

"Does that mean I'm a really good fighter?"

"I've trained a lot worse. Ok, for right now, the most important thing is to find your power. I made this mistake too many times before in training, it does no good to be a good fighter if you can't put enough power behind your punches to be worth it. Adding in some energy-based attacks would be a good idea too. I've seen feline-type fighters before that could slice most people into chunks from a pretty good distance."

"Wow!" Traitin had never thought that kind of thing was possible. "How do I do that?"

"Meditation and lots and lots of practice. Sorry there's not an easier way, not if you want to use your power properly anyway."

"Meditation?" Traitin asked. He knew what it was, but he'd never done it before.

"Yes, you need to focus on bringing out your energy, so you can use it to make energy blasts, cutting weapons, fly, and exedra."

"FLY?"

"Of course, how do you think I get from one planet to the next?"

"I assumed you had a ship of some kind…"

"Oh, that's right, you didn't know about that." Cryos appeared to be gathering his thoughts. "I am a hybrid, my father was half Sayian and half Human, and my mother was half Sayian and half Ice-Jin. Sayians and Ice-Jins are very powerful, Sayians have more raw power and Ice-Jins have many other interesting abilities, such as the ability to exist without air. Humans, while being pitifully weak in comparison to the other two, have much more powerful emotions and hormones that push my power far beyond anything that I could hope to achieve otherwise."

"How powerful are you?" Traitin asked, a little shakily. 

Cryos thought for a moment. "Let's put it this way, if I wanted to take over this galaxy, I could wipe out every army, destroy every capital city, build myself a capital world to rule from, and destroy any stars that block my view or whatever I wanted to see. And it would all take place in a matter of days, weeks at most. I know that I am by far the most powerful being in this galaxy, most likely this entire universe and I am at least one of the top ten strongest in the Multiverse, probably the top three, depending on if my daughter has been training hard or not these last ten years."

Traitin backed away a little before asking "Multiverse? Isn't that that thing those scientists were working on downtown?"

"Very good, that's actually why I'm here. About ten years back, I fought this dark Jedi planning on using the Force, some kind sentient of all-powerful cosmic force, to wipe out all life in that particular universe. I managed to kill him, but he had become so powerful by that point that the only way to do it was to actually fly him into the black hole he had been using to mask his presence from us. In the end, even that was only partly successful since his spirit escaped his body and left me to drag an empty shell into the black hole."

"What's it like in a black hole?"

"Honestly, I don't remember much except pain, and lots of it, until I woke up in this universe. I had no memories and was drifting naked in space. I made it to a planet where I found Mazzark, his people helped me. Eventually I regained my memories and set out looking for a way back. Which is why I am here. Very soon, I plan to go to that lab downtown and use their portal generator to try to get back."

"But how do you know you'll end up in the right place?" Traitin asked.

"Honestly, I don't. I think I remember the signal signature for the universe I want, but my memory is still a little bit patchy. So I'm going to try and, worst case scenario, I end up in the wrong place. At least I'll have tried."

Cryos headed over to the old, beat up refrigerator. "The other thing you should know about Sayians, we eat a lot." He turned from the fridge with a plate heaping over with food. There were several chizpans, (bird-like edible creatures who's flavor was often compared to everything) bowels of cold soup, a large salad, and a pile of steaks. "I know, its only a small snack, but its rather tough to get without money and when you can't show your face in daylight."

"A snack!?" Traitin demanded. "That could feed a family of four for a week!"

"Good, then you wont eat much. Take what you can now cause there aren't going to be leftovers. Mazzark, catch." He grabbed an orange fruit from the tray and tossed it into the air. Mazzark zipped by in a green blur, snatched it and landed on the rag pile.

The tiny alien stabbed his pointed nose into the fruit and within moments it began to wither. In less than a minute, the fruit was reduced to a dry brown lump. Mazzark sat back on the rags, satisfied.

"I thought he wasn't getting dinner?"

"Eh, I need him and he has a high metabolism. He does do a good job guarding the place. Now take whatever you're gonna eat, cause I'm hungry."

Traitin grabbed a bowel of soup and a steak and sat back on the couch, and then Cryos dug in. Traitin had never seen anyone eat like that. Cryos dug through the food like an army of starving men. Traitin actually had to duck under a flying chizpan bone. Eventually the food was gone and Traitin had barely worked his way through his soup. "Are you gonna eat that?" Cryos asked, pointing at the last steak.

Traitin shook his head meekly and handed it over. Cryos ate it in one bite and tossed the bone on the plate with the rest. He sat in the chair looking better but not satisfied. 

"I can't wait to get back to Corosant, since I saved them so many times, they feed me as much as I want. I normally eat about three times this much, more if I'm going into battle."

Traitin finished his soup and asked, "So how do I start meditating?"

"Focus on your strength, your inner core of power. When you can pull it to the surface, like this," he held up his hands a few inches apart, "we'll be ready to move on." The air between Cryos's hands began to glow.

"Ok," Cryos's hands stopped glowing and he jumped over to the pile of rags. "You can have the couch when you're done meditating, don't stay up too late. Oh, and Mazzark?" The little creature looked up at him. "Traitin is not to leave. Knock him out if you have to but do not let him go. Sorry, Traitin, but that's just how it is."


	4. A Green Problem

Traitin summoned his energy and the ground began to shake. Soon the air around him was glowing as well. He had made amazing progress in only a few weeks. Already Cryos had to work to beat him in a sparring match. Traitin had learned how to fly, to fight hand to hand, and how to build up his strength into a powerful attack.

Cryos was amazed at how he was progressing. He looked over at Mazzark as Traitin powered up to his maximum. "It's time for me to leave this universe soon. I'm taking him with me, but I can still return you to your homeworld."

Mazzark blinked a response.

"Really, it won't be a bother to me, it would only take a few days to get there and back. You've been a huge help to me all these years, I want you to do what you want."

The tiny alien blinked out another message.

"Ya, I suppose you're right. By now, pretty much everyone you knew is dead and gone. Well, I would be honored to have you along. Now to break the news to Traitin."

Traitin stopped powering up and looked over. "Huh?"

Cryos sighed. "Tonight, I make my move on the lab downtown. With any luck, tomorrow, I'll be gone from this Universe forever."

"But… but there's still so much you have to teach me!"

"I know, I wish I had more time, but from what I can gather, the lab has created a stable wormhole. They haven't gone through or tried to bring anything back yet. Once they do, the military will move them to who knows where. It's taken me ten years to find a civilization capable of inter-dimensional travel, and a great deal of time and effort to learn everything I could about the building they're doing it in. I cant afford to lose this chance."

"I want to go with you." Traitin declared.

"You would leave your world, your species, your entire life, for what? Power?"

"No, I would leave it because I know I am doing the right thing. There is nothing on this planet for me anymore. I understand that. I want a chance to make a difference somewhere. Until I met you my greatest ambition was to become the toughest thug in the city. I could do that now if I still wanted. But I want to make a difference, I want to be strong enough to protect people. And you've given me that chance."

Cryos smiled. It had worked exactly how he planned, instead of forcing the Felon to leave his home world, he begged to be taken. "Get some rest, we leave tonight."

……………………………………………………………

Late that night, a pair of shadowy figures moved in the darkness. They ran and leapt from one rooftop to another without making even the slightest sound. From time to time, the one in the lead would stop. He seemed to be listening, but there were no sounds in the dark of the night.

Finally, they arrived at a huge building. It was only two stories tall, but covered a huge aria. Stolen blueprints showed that it extended far underground.

The building was ultra-secure. Everything was wired with alarms, and at the deepest rooms, tripping alarms would set off the self-destruct sequence.

Cryos pulled back his hood and Mazzark climbed onto his shoulder. "It's up to you for now." He said and lifted the tiny creature up to an air vent on the side of the building.

Mazzark nodded and squeezed between the tiny slats of the vent. Cryos had explained the danger involved. The duct, in addition to being wired with the occasional sensor that had to be avoided, was strung with monofilament wire. Wire so strong and thin that it was like the world's sharpest knife blade, and invisible in the darkness. Even brushing against it would likely kill the tiny alien.

"Now what?" Traitin asked.

"We wait, it shouldn't take long."

It took just under ten minutes for the security lights next to the main door to wink out, and a few seconds later the door itself opened. Mazzark looked quite proud of himself as he stood atop a pile of unconscious Felon guards.

"Good job." Cryos praised. "No troubles?"

The Lalz shook his head.

Cryos started down the hallway, moving quickly but silently, Traitin followed. They stopped at an intersection in the hallway. Cryos pointed silently to a video camera above them, looking down the other hallway. They slipped past without being spotted.

Footsteps in the distance alerted them to another guard, Cryos went through a side door. "This is as good a place as any." He extended a wrist blade and stabbed it into the floor, leaving a large gash in the tile. Mazzark dove down the hole and came back moments later. He gave a little thumbs up and got out of the way just as Cryos slashed a much larger hole in the floor.

Traitin was amazed how well they worked together without even having to talk.

Cryos led the way down the hole into a new hallway.

The process was repeated several times, all the while moving lower and closer to the center of the building. Traitin lost count, but he estimated it was the fourteenth time when Mazzark practically flew out of the hole flashing a warning.

Cryos grabbed Traitin and dove back away from the hole just as it exploded outward in a blast of dazzling green light.

A Felon dressed in a tight black and green outfit and surrounded by a green ball of light floated up through the hole. Cryos could feel the power coming from the green ring on his finger.

"Dorgan, I don't have time for this." Cryos said.

"You're gonna make time. We have unfinished business." Dorgan the Green Lantern replied.

"Look, if you let us go we'll be out of your hair forever."

"Right, like I'd let you go after you attacked those kids the other day."

"I told them to stop fighting or I would make them stop, I did make them stop. I didn't even hurt them, and I saved Traitin's life."

"So now you're corrupting kids and teaching them to break intergalactic laws of breaking and entering into a Lantern Core financed industry?"

"I knew it!" Cryos cried. "These people should be nowhere near making a working wormhole, the Lanterns had to be helping them on it!"

Dorgan crossed his arms. "The regular scientists did most of the work, the Lanterns just gave them a little bit of hardware. It doesn't change the fact that you are trespassing in our business. We have gone easy on you in the past, but you've stepped on the toes of the Lantern Core too many times now. This time you won't walk away."

"You have the Lanterns after you!?" Traitin demanded.

"Eh, I have nothing against the organization, but some of the members have an attitude problem. I made them look bad by doing things they couldn't. Traitin, would you wanna handle him for me?"

"WHAT!?" He asked in shock.

"You're strong enough now. I guess I could stop him if you want to handle those guys for me." Cryos pointed at the corner of the hallway where heavily armed guards started appearing. There were at least a few dozen, probably many more. "Your choice, Dorgan will be easier."

In reality, Cryos could easily take care of Dorgan and the guards, but he wanted Traitin to do it as a sort of test.

Cryos moved with super speed and grabbed a couple small, grenade-like devices from some of the guards, then reappeared where he started.

"Lose these?" He asked as he held them up and popped off the pins. "Here, I'll give them back." He rolled them down the hall as the guards ran for their lives. The resulting explosion didn't kill anyone but blocked off the hallway quite securely.

Traitin swallowed and turned to Drogan.

He was glowing bright green and seemed confident about the outcome of the fight, Cryos knew the winner wouldn't be who the Green Lantern expected.


	5. The Road Home

Disclaimer: Don't own the things that I've stolen from others. That's what most of the characters in this story are, stolen from others.

Dorgan looked over at Cryos. "So now you have children working for you? This is exactly like what I heard about you."

Cryos looked at him a little suspiciously. "What exactly have you heard about me?"

"That you move into a place unannounced, do not follow any of the Lantern Core immigration regulations, and do whatever suits you. You topple local governments, wipe out militaries single handed, cause havoc, and eat enough to feed a small city."

"Ah, ok. I was worried they were making stuff up about me." Cryos leaned against the wall.

"You don't deny the allegations?"

"Well, I admit I have caused a bit of havoc over the years. And the occasional dictator has been toppled. But I never did anything that didn't need to be done."

"But you cannot simply remove a government!" Dorgan insisted. "Intergalatic policy doesn't work that way! Even we Lanterns can only get involved when one planet attacks another."

Cryos was getting annoyed. "I believe I already said I did things you couldn't. Besides, I worked together with the Lanterns once, when I first arrived in this Universe. They accepted my help, then tried to arrest me under suspicion of being a fugitive. Just because I have power doesn't mean I abuse it."

"You've still been involved in illegal activities and I am going to capture you for questioning. The elders will read your mind and decide if you're a danger or not."

Cryos sighed. "I don't have time for that. I need to use that portal."

"Then I need to stop you."

Cryos sighed again. "Traitin, please take care of this guy."

"But Cryos, he's a Lantern! How can I hope to beat him?"

"Trust me, you shouldn't have too much trouble."

Traitin gave him a look of disbelievement, but went into a fighting stance. As soon as he started to power up, Dorgan attacked.

Traitin was caught off guard by the cheap trick and took a power-ring assisted blow to the chin.

Cryos caught him in midair and stood him back on his feet. "Don't think about what you're going to do, just do what you're going to do. When you can skip a step, it makes your movements that much faster."

Traitin used his energy to help him block Dorgan's next few punches, and then the Green Lantern blasted a beam of green energy at the young Felon. Traitin reacted just barely fast enough and caught the energy bare handed. He looked proud of himself, until the beam expanded and absorbed him. Enveloping him in a super strong bubble.

"Just because I said to not overthink your moves doesn't mean you can be stupid!" Cryos yelled. "Blast out of there and beat him."

The young Felon used the moment to power up. The green bubble couldn't withstand the onslaught of energy and exploded.

Dorgan had a moment of shocked surprise at his power failing, and Traitin took advantage of it. He performed a spectacular spinning attack that launched the Lantern through the far wall.

"Very good," Cryos said. "I told you he wasn't all that tough."

The wall exploded in a blast of green light. Dorgan wasted no time in attacking. Traitin tried hitting him again, but his blows were blocked by green shields.

"You can hit through them, you have enough strength." Cryos called out.

Traitin's body gave of a flare of power as his strength grew.

His next punch went right through the shields and impacted solidly on Dorgan's face.

The Green Lantern was down for the count.

"Good, now let's get out of this place." Cryos jumped down through the hole Dorgan had made.

Traitin followed, scarcely believing that he had just beaten a Lantern single-handedly. He heard Cryos shout something, but he wasn't paying attention. Suddenly, an alarm sounded. He looked down and saw he had stepped into a laser beam sensor.

"Three minutes to detonation." Announced a computerized voice.

"You idiot!" Cryos shouted. "I took the time and effort to get us all the way here without tripping the alarms and you walk into one!"

Traitin cowered and mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"Forget that, no time to waste now. Screw the alarms." Cryos grabbed Traitin from where he stood and blasted the floor.

Cryos kept the beam close as he fell. Finally, after many more floors, they entered a huge room.

Almost all the light in the room came from a massive, swirling wormhole floating in the center of the room. With computer monitors providing a dim background glow.

"Ok, snap out of it." Cryos tossed Traitin to the floor in front of a bank of computers. "I need your help to interpret all this."

"You can't read?" Traitin asked in disbelief.

"I can read, in over seventy languages. I just can't read you language yet. My translator microbes only let me speak and understand spoken languages. I have to figure out things like Latz flash-speak and written languages on my own. I was hoping to have a few more weeks to learn everything, and I was planning on having more time to figure this all out."

"Two minutes to detonation." The recorded voice punctuated his message quite clearly.

"Mazzark, guard the door." The tiny alien instantly leapt into place above the door. "Ok, now Traitin, look for something that says tuning, or focusing, or frequency, or something like that."

The young Felon scanned the monitors and stopped on one. "Gateway Wavelength." He read.

"That's it. Now try to find a wavelength input, there should be some kind of control to bring it up on that page somewhere."

"Um," Traitin pressed a few controls, but nothing that looked like an input. "I'm not seeing it anywhere."

The door opened and Mazzark dropped down on the first guard. A quick jab of venom knocked him out. Mazzark had taken out four more guards when a flash of green light sent him shooting across the huge room. He performed a summersault and stuck to the far wall.

"Mazzark, help Traitin." Cryos shouted to him. "I'll handle this."

The Lalz nodded and scurried down the wall.

Cryos wasted no time in launching himself at the Green Lantern in the doorway.

Dorgan, to his credit, was smart enough to try and dodge. He just wasn't quite fast enough.

Cryos caught him with a glancing blow that sent them both tumbling out of control.

The Lantern recovered first and went after Cryos, who responded in turn and they locked hands.

Green energy sparked against yellow as the two warriors battled. The remaining guards dragged off their fallen fellows as the ground started to crack.

Cryos grunted in effort. He had never had to work so hard against a Lantern before. "You're very strong…"

"I recharged my ring before coming down here. I wont be so easy to defeat anymore."

From the computers, Traitin waved. "Cryos! We found it! We just need the numbers to input!"

Cryos scowled at the Green Lantern as he made a decision. This had to end now. His yellow glow turned green as he powered up to Super-Sayian. His hair stood up and changed the same color while his eyes changed purple.

His energy lit the room and completely overpowered the Green Lantern.

Dorgan's eyes showed fear only at the last moment before Cryos's tail whipped around and wrapped around his neck. The tail easily lifted him into the air, leaving Cryos's hands free to form a large energy blast that he leveled right into the Felon's face.

"Go ahead, kill me." Dorgan wheezed.

"I could easily kill you, but I really don't want to. In case you haven't noticed, this place is about to explode, someone needs to save all the people working here. Even though you're a big pain who only knows how to follow orders, I hope I can trust you to do that much."

"And leave you to continue terrorizing any planet you come across? No deal."

"Look! If this place goes off, it will kill everyone except me. So even your suicide plan accomplishes nothing. You can either die, and let everyone else here die along with you, or you can save them. I'm going through that wormhole either way, so you can tell your superiors you killed me. I don't care, pride doesn't matter if it saves lives."

Dorgan thought it over as the recording went off again. "One minute to detonation."

He sighed. "You swear you'll never return to this Universe?"

"You have my word, now save them."

Cryos let Dorgan back down to the ground. The Felon rubbed his neck for a moment, then extended his hand. "It's a deal."

Cryos shook his hand and smiled.

"Guys!?" Traitin called out. "I need the numbers so we can get outta here!"

"Right," Cryos said and ran over.

Dorgan spend one more moment watching him. "I guess we were wrong about you." He muttered. "Good luck…" And with that he flew off to save the other people in the building.

Back at the computers, Cryos was trying as hard as he could to remember the wavelength for the world where he had left his friends and family. Trying to remember twenty-seven numbers, after so long, and with a patchy memory was no easy trick.

But the time limit on the bomb was good motivation.

He called out the numbers and Traitin entered them. He had just put in the last one when the recorded voice called out again.

"Detonation in ten seconds…" And it began to count down.

The computer screen displayed a new screen while the wormhole flickered wildly.

"What's it say?" Cryos asked.

"It says it's searching for a habitable world to link to."

"Well it had better hurry…"

"Five seconds…" The recording droned on.

Finally the screen flashed. "It's ready!" Traitin exclaimed.

"And not a second to spare."

Cryos grabbed Traitin, Mazzark and his staff and leapt into the wormhole. He was finally on his way home.


	6. Evil Strikes Home

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to bother this time. I've long been out of amusing ideas for my disclaimers. You all know what is normally said in these things, I don't own stolen characters or universes. Some of my characters are original, but none of my universes are. So there's always something stolen in here.

Cryos spiraled through the wormhole. He couldn't believe he was finally on his way home. He had been dreaming of this moment ever since his memories had started to recover.

There was still a nagging fear that he had gotten the code wrong and was on his way to the wrong Universe, but he put the thoughts out of his mind. If that was the case there was nothing he could do now.

The trip finally came to its crashing end when the wormhole abruptly ended.

Cryos somersaulted in midair and landed softly on his feet.

Traitin crashed into the ground and tumbled until he hit a tree.

"Ugh, you could have warned me about the landing!" He shouted. But Cryos wasn't listening.

Instead, he was standing with his eyes closed. "Quiet, I'm searching."

"For what?" Traitin asked aloud. But Cryos remained silent. He was about to say something else until he spotted Mazzark shaking his head. Traitin figured he'd wait.

Finally, after several minutes, Cryos opened his eyes. "I think this is it. My family is here. But everything is wrong. I can sense Kentra, but not where she is. Its almost like she's somehow hiding. And I feel what might be Yamna too, but she's way too strong. And something else is wrong with her, I just can't figure out what."

"Could this be the wrong Universe?" Traitin asked.

"Not likely. Sometimes, very rarely, people will have a parallel identity in another Universe. It doesn't happen a lot, but I've seen it. I call them a 'Bizarro' cause while they look a lot like twins and have similar abilities their personalities are nothing alike." Cryos signed. "If I just felt Kentra, then maybe I'd believe that was the case. But there's no way there could be another Yamna. As far as I know, I'm one of a kind. And even if there was a Bizarro me, he probably wouldn't have married Kentra and had Yamna."

"So what do we do?" Traitin asked.

"Since you can't breathe in space and we have no spacesuit, we wait."

"It's not all my fault." The young Felon insisted. "He can't breathe in space either!" He said, pointing at Mazzark.

"True, but we've solved that problem." Cryos twisted the top of his staff and reveled a small opening. "It's an airtight space he can ride in while I'm in space. Not exactly luxurious, but it does the job."

"But isn't the staff bad for most people? Eats their energy or something?"

"Lalz are the natural caretakers of Leech Trees. They protect each other. Lalz that live in the roots of Leech Trees live longer because the trees give some life force to them. Since this piece of Leech Tree is so supercharged from my life force, Mazzark has already lived longer than the oldest Lalz in the clan, and he is still young and healthy."

Mazzark blinked a question.

"Mazzark, its fine. We can trust him, and besides, there aren't any other Lalz in this Universe, so it's not like he's going to sell your secrets to anyone."

Everyone fell silent and Cryos took the opportunity to look around. They were in a forest, but the trees were still young and growing. The canopy had not filled in completely yet. Through the gaps Cryos could see an overcast sky. Off to one direction the clouds were reflecting light.

"Let's check out the city while we wait." He said and slowly lifted off the ground and flew towards the glow.

Traitin flew after him. "Shouldn't we stay put so your family can find us?"

"We're staying on the same planet, that's 'put' enough. Besides, I wanna know if I've been here before."

Cryos landed towards the outskirts of the city. Dozens of different species were milling around the streets. Traitin looked in awe. "I'd never have believed so many different aliens could live together."

"Well believe it. And get over it. You can't go looking cockeyed at everyone you see on the street. You could fight them off, but we don't want to attract attention to ourselves yet."

"Why not? I thought you were a hero here."

"I was a hero for wining a war, but every war also has its losers. They wouldn't exactly give us a warm welcome. And considering that the Empire had a Sith leader before I showed up, and that I was almost defeated by a Sith on a trip into the past, I'd rather not get involved with them."

"I see…"

Cryos and Traitin wandered the streets without serious incident for some time. Cryos's translator microbes could handle most of the languages without any trouble. Also, the microbes had colonized Traitin as well when Cryos gave him some of his blood, so he could understand them as well.

As it turned out, Cryos had not been to this world before. In fact, he had never even heard of it. It was deep in the Corporate sector, they were self policing and tended to stick to their own business. The Empire had left them alone, at least as long as they were busy handling the Rebellion.

The Corporate sector would have been the last to fall under the Empire, simply because they would never fight back. But with the Empire gone, they were free to continue gouging every spare credit from the tourist population until the end of time.

A standing joke on these planets was that the only things free in the Corporate sector were walking and breathing, and that was only because they couldn't figure out how to deny services to those who didn't pay.

Finally, after what seemed like hours wandering the dirty and often smelly city, Cryos felt a glimmer of energy far above him. _Kentra__!_ He thought.

He took off running back to the outskirts leaving a surprised Traitin and Mazzark to try to keep up. Draco couldn't land in the city, not without knocking over a building or two.

Once he was back in the forest, he waited as the familiar shape dropped from the clouds. Draco, still in his spaceship form, landed heavily on his four pillar-like legs. His mouth opened and a silver-haired figure flew out in a blur.

Cryos leapt towards her and held her close to his chest.

A more tender moment could not have been found in a Hallmark card.

Kentra pressed her face to his chest and cried as he stroked her long, beautiful hair.

They stayed like that for some time, until Cryos tried to look at Kentra's face.

She quickly covered the right side of her face with both hands. "No, I don't want you to see…" She mumbled.

"It's ok, no matter what happened I love you."

"You don't understand, you don't know what's happened. She's a monster. Unstoppable, not even I could do anything."

"I'll straighten everything out, but I haven't seen you in ten years. Let me see your beautiful face again. I've dreamed of it every night, even when I couldn't remember my own name."

Finally, she let her hands drop.

Cryos thought he was prepared for anything, but he had to stifle a gasp when he saw his wife's face.

The entire right half of her face was burned and covered with oozing scars. But the most shocking was her eye. Her beautiful purple eye was gone!

"Now you understand…" She said. "The only one who can stop her is you!"

Cryos was practically vibrating with rage, but he cut her off. "Shhhhhh…" He made a fist so tight that his fingernails cut into his palm. He squeezed until purple blood was dripping from his hand. "First I'll heal you, and then I'll kill whoever did this to you."

She closed her eye as Cryos brought his hand to her face. He pressed his palm to the open wounds on her face. She flinched, but was strong and otherwise showed no sign of the pain.

Her pale skin flattened out and the sparse, silver scales regrew. The oozing wounds vanished and her face dried. And finally, her empty, sagging eye socket bulged out and then opened, revealing a newly-formed, beautiful, purple eye.

She smiled as tears ran down her face and she kissed him.

When she finally broke the kiss, Cryos asked "Now, who did this to you?"

She looked down. "After you left, she started getting wild. No one could control her. Not the New Republic army, not Luke Skywalker, not even me. When I tried she did this."

Dread filled Cryos's heart. He hoped he was wrong about who 'She' was. "Who do you…"

"Yes…" Kentra said. "The person who did this, and who is taking over the galaxy one system at a time, is Yamna… Our daughter."


	7. A Mission

Cryos sat like a statue aboard Draco as they starburst out of the Cooperate sector. He hadn't said a word since Kentra had given him the news.

"I understand that you're upset," Kentra said, "but you have to mask your power or she'll find us."

"Maybe I want her to find us…" Cryos muttered.

"There's time enough for that later. I've left Pahrac in charge of the resistance, but I need to get back there in case something has happened. You showed up at the perfect time, we're planning our final attack."

"Attack? Your own kid?" Traitin asked. Then he suddenly looked afraid. "I didn't mean to imply anything, I mean, I'm sure she's a monster, uhh, what I mean to say is… I'm gonna stop talking…"

Kentra looked at him and for the first time seemed to really notice him. "Has Cryos been training you? You seem strong."

"Yeah, I was a street thug, he saved my life when I was hurt and he's started teaching me how to fight for good now."

Cryos looked up. "If anyone is going to do this, it's going to be me. I'm the only one nearly strong enough. But if she's immortal like me…"

"She is." Kentra said. "We knew she had healing powers before you left, since then they've been amplified by her other powers. She's very strong in the Force."

The starburst abruptly ended, dropping them back into normal space near an asteroid belt. Draco began maneuvering them towards a larger one in the middle.

"We've been using this as a base of operations for a few months now, Skywalker and the handful of Jedi he's managed to train are there too. They're all going to be involved in the attack."

"You obviously haven't been listening. If anyone has a chance to do anything useful, it's me. Maybe a few of the others like you and Skywalker could help, but this is going to come down to a fight between me and her. And anyone who comes along is just going to be in the way."

"So who are you going to take along?" Traitin asked.

"I'm not sure yet. There are a few things I need to check on first anyway. At this point, Draco was landing in a hanger inside the large asteroid. "Everyone out! I'm taking Draco, I'll be back in a few hours." Cryos announced.

Kentra, Traitin and Mazzark climbed out of Draco in confusion.

Cryos called after them. "Kentra, you put my gauntlets in the vault, right?"

"Yes." She responded.

Draco lifted out of the hanger and barely cleared the asteroid field before he starburst into the void.

……………………………………………..

In the highest tower on the planet that was once known as Courosant, a solitary figure stood in the darkness.

A voice echoed from the darkness. It came from every direction, with no source, but there nonetheless. "What do you see my apprentice?"

The figure responded in the voice of a teenage girl. "A great warrior comes from beyond the boundaries of space and time. He has the power to defeat us. He is blind to the Force, yet guided by it in ways he does not yet comprehend."

"Can he be corrupted by the dark side? Turned to our devices and made a slave to the dark energies?"

"It's unclear, I said he is guided by the Force, but he does not serve it. Neither the light nor the dark holds complete sway over him."

"Everyone contains aspects of both sides of the Force." The voice responded, sounding slightly irritated.

"I know, but this one is different. He combines the aspects into what appears to be the perfect warrior. I don't know if he can be beaten."

"Do not worry yourself about that." The darkness of the room seemed to contract. Shadows shrank and slid across the floor to a single point on the far side of the room. They formed a dark shadow of a man in a cloak, a shadow not cast by anyone physically in the room. "I have fought this warrior. Your father is powerful, but he is not unbeatable…"

………………………………………………

Draco landed back in normal space deep in the uncharted territories. This was the place where Cryos kept things that were too dangerous to leave around. Draco swooped in to the tiny camouflaged base on the surface of an insignificant moon, circling an insignificant planet, all circling an equally insignificant star. The tiny star system barely formed a speck in a galaxy as large as this one. But this speck contained a few items that most of the rest of the galaxy would go to any lengths to lay their hands (suckers, tentacles, or whatever their species traditionally grabs things with) on.

Once inside, Cryos wandered past various things on pedestals.

A jar of the deadly death seed plague bugs, plus a few vials of various viruses produced and released by the emperor during the end of his reign, they had decimated the populations of hundreds of worlds.

An almost working sun crusher, a tiny, nearly indestructible one man ship that fired concussion missiles capable of setting off a supernova in otherwise stable stars. The original had been destroyed years ago, but Cryos had discovered a plot to create another and foiled it.

A crate containing datadisks detailing some of the Hutts more lucrative business deals. Cryos had used them as blackmail to have them take the prices off the heads of his wife, daughter and some of the New Republic congressmen.

An experimental blaster that drew upon the life force of its user to fire a devastatingly powerful beam. Unfortunately, firing it more than three times in a day was generally fatal for an average person, and anyone powerful who tried to use it would cause an explosive overload almost instantly.

A cloning machine containing the dormant clone of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Chiss Grand Admiral was a military and tactical genius unrivaled in all of Cryos's travels. He had waged a militant and propaganda war against the New Republic that had almost been successful. He had even managed to turn popular opinion against Cryos, limiting his ability to stop the invasion. He was finally betrayed by one of his own bodyguards and killed. This clone had been his backup plan. Cryos had found it however and set it to hibernate, keeping it alive but safely out of trouble.

Cryos spent several long minutes finding the items he was looking for.

First were his gauntlets, made by Washu so many years ago. One contained a mini-hologram generator and the other a tiny inter-dimensional wormhole generator. The other item was a mangled metal box delivered to him by Boba Fett. It had held a message from Darth Posh, informing Cryos of his plan to kill billions of people if Cryos couldn't stop him. Having Fett deliver the message was a calculated insult designed to rattle him before the battle. Cryos's first encounter with the bounty hunter had been when he defeated masked man in a tournament and had almost gotten Kentra killed over the winnings.

Cryos put on the gauntlets and was about to open a wormhole, when he remembered something. He went back to the crate of datadisks near the entrance and filled his pockets. Nodding to himself he opened a wormhole and grabbed Draco before hopping through into another Universe.


	8. Renforcements

The wormhole dropped Cryos out in a gigantic room filled with strange machinery. He easily somersaulted in midair and landed lightly on the ground. He took a deep breath and shouted one word. "WASHU!!!"

Cryos waited a few seconds and a bank of computer monitors nearby lit up. Washu's face appeared on them. She looked a little tired and grease smeared, but still as young as the day he'd met her. Cryos knew that was an illusion and she was actually several thousand years old. But before he could comment on her looks she shouted at him.

"Cryos! You're alive! You fell into a black hole and you're alive! " For the first time since he'd met her, she looked genuinely shocked. "Stay right there! I need to do some tests!" The screens went blank before Cryos could say anything to the scientist.

He sighed. As brilliant and useful as Washu was there were times when she was like a child. He knew her too well to believe she actually cared for his well being, she just had to do tests on something that had actually escaped a black hole.

Less than a minute later, Washu appeared riding on some kind of hover sled. She jumped off and ran almost as if she was going to hug him, but stopped just short and started scanning him with a palm pilot like device. "Well this is disappointing. I'm not detecting any dark matter, or quasar residue, or even any radiation besides what you normally give off. Are you sure you got sucked into a black hole? Cause I don't see any evidence of it."

"Oh! Oh! Scan me!" Draco shouted.

Washu pointed the scanner at Draco. "You are giving off radio waves in both AM and FM strong enough to interfere with radar and bring down small planes."

"I've been eating HAM radios! They taste like bacon if you fry them!" The tiny lizard announced.

"Yes, I'm sure I was in the black hole." Cryos interrupted. "I remember it vividly." He shuddered at the pain of the memory of his very atoms being torn apart. "I ended up in another Universe. I spent about a year recovering my memories and strength, then set out to find a way back to Kentra. I just got back a few hours ago to find my daughter has become a Sith bent on wiping out all life in that Universe. Now I need your help to set things right."

"Well I'm a bit hesitant to go into battle with you again after what happened last time…"

"You won't have to fight."

"Sign me up!"

Cryos hopped on the hover sled with Washu and flew back to the central part of the lab. "I only really need two things I really need from you." He said once they'd reached the machine she had been working on before he arrived. "Remember those gemstones I had you study?"

Washu thought for a moment. "The cousora gems. You found them in the core of a supergiant gas planet that was almost big enough to become a star, but it never ignited. You couldn't break them no matter how hard you tried."

"So did you ever get the chance to study them?" he asked.

"Of course. I synthesized them and use them in my atom smashers. In fact, this machine I was working on uses several to squash atoms into-"

"Yes…" Cryos interrupted. He was in no mood for one of her long winded technical explanations. "I was wondering if you could use them to make me some indestructible armor."

She nodded. "It won't be easy. In a diamond every atom is connected to four other atoms, making a diamond basically one very large molecule with the exception of some cracks that weaken its structure. And even then its still one of the strongest things we know of. In these cousora gems the atoms are extremely close together and form bonds with ten to twelve neighboring atoms. In addition, there's no cracks or flaws cause any with cracks would be torn apart by the extreme pressures."

"But you can do it?"

"This will take extreme concentration." She walked around to the front of the atom smasher. "Quiet please…"

Cryos sat in silence as she raised her hands over the keyboard. She pressed one button and the machine went to work. No more than five seconds later it spat out a folded set of clothes that shimmered and seemed to change color depending on how you looked at them.

"I thought you said it would take concentration!?" Cryos demanded.

"It did, do you have any idea how hard it was to make this machine? Besides, if you'd let me finish telling you about it you would have known that it's actually designed to make cousora armor. Convenient, huh?"

"Ya… Extremely…" Cryos shook his head. "Anyway, the other thing is I need to find someone. All I have to go on is this." Cryos lifted the mangled metal box. "He delivered this to me about ten years ago."

"Did he touch it?" Washu asked.

"I doubt it. The number of beings in that entire Universe that have seen Boba Fett's face and lived to tell the tale could be counted on one hand. He's completely covered by Mandalorian armor."

"Wait, isn't Boba Fett the man who shot Kentra that time?" Washu asked. "Why would you want to find him?"

"We've had a few run-ins over the years and come to an understanding of sorts. He leaves me and my family alone, and I don't interfere with his business. In a way, I respect him. He's ruthless, heartless, and kills without hesitation or regret, but… there's something about him. Of all the bounty hunters and mercenaries I've ever met, and that's a lot, he's the only one that was ever trustworthy."

"How could a bounty hunter be trustworthy?" Washu asked.

"If hired for a job, he does it. He doesn't mess around or do side work. And he never fails. But that's not what I respect. I heard a story from a safe house once. They fought off Fett for three days before he finally managed to get in and take the person inside. But he was so impressed with them, and how well they worked together, that he paid double the money the man he took had promised to pay. And out of his own pocket even."

"He's a pillar among his peers." Washu said sarcastically.

"Seriously, he is!" Cryos handed her the box. "And now I need to find him. I want him to help in the distraction so I can get into Imperial Palace undetected."

"Fine, go make sure your armor fits, I'll see what I can do."

Cryos grabbed the cousora clothes and hopped behind a large machine to change.

The clothes were feather light, and consisted of a pair of pants, a tank top shirt and a long short sleeved shirt that hung open or could be closed with a small clasp. He couldn't believe how comfortable they were. As a test, he tried to rip the shirt. He pulled as hard as he could be the cousora fabric wouldn't give. Satisfied, he went back out to check on Washu's progress.

Draco started jumping up and down when he saw Cryos. "Oh cool! I want clothes like that!"

"We've been through this Draco. You can't wear clothes until you're potty trained."

"Aww… But it's so hard…"

"Anyway, "Washu interrupted. "I managed to find a few fibers of a unique substance on the box. It appears to be some sort cloth padding, but on closer inspection you see each fiber is an electrode that uses excess body fluids; blood, sweat, exc.; to generate electricity. This could power small weapons or recorders that could be built into a suit of armor like you described. Next I set my scanner to track these fibers. You should be able to find your bounty hunter pretty easily now."

"Thanks Washu!" Cryos grabbed the scanner from her hand. "If there's anything I can ever do for you-"

"Actually," She said. "I need some heavy machinery moved."

"Tomorrow." Cryos announced. "Anything you need me to do, starting tomorrow. See ya later!" he announced as he opened a wormhole back to the Universe he just left and dove through with Draco in tow.

"Just for that Cryos, you're reorganizing the entire lab once this is sorted out…"


	9. A Strange Alliance

Cryos dropped out of the portal into the vacuum of space. Draco decided to be helpful and expanded out to his spaceship form. Cryos boarded and turned on the scanner Washu had given him. A holographic projection of the galaxy appeared in the air with millions of tiny specks representing the fibers it was picking up.

Cryos groaned. Washu had made the scanner too powerful, it was picking up all the fibers Fett had ever dropped everywhere he went over the years. It was going to take days to even begin to check all the star systems with these fibers in them.

But then something caught his eye. One of the spots was moving. It left the star system it was in and was moving faster than light. "Bingo!" He shouted. "Draco, set course for the Imperial Remnant."

"Eye eye, Captain!" He bellowed. "May I add that your feet were minty fresh when you boarded!"

Cryos made a funny face. "Draco, is something wrong with you? I mean other than the usual."

"Probably…" He admitted a split second before the starburst kicked in. Cryos hadn't been ready for the jolt into starburst since Draco was talking at the time, which was probably the lizard's intention all along.

The starburst ended and Cryos pealed himself off the back wall. "This is the right place?" He asked.

"Uh… sure! Why not?"

Cryos sighed. He'd probably have to check the star charts to figure out where Draco had landed them. But before he could, space rippled in front of him and a ship dropped out of hyperspace. It was the Salve II, Boba Fett's ship.

"Draco! Open a hailing channel!"

"Open."

"Fett, its Cryos." He announced.

"Cryos." Came Fett's flat, monotone reply. "They said you died, that were sucked into a black hole."

"Well I did fall into a black hole, and I'm not sure if I died or not, but I'm back now." Cryos decided to move to business quickly, before Fett lost interest. "I have a business proposition for you."

"Not interested." Fett replied instantly. "I've learned the hard way to not get involved with either you or your daughter. I'm not on the same level as either of you. I'm still alive today because I know when I'm beat."

"I could make it worth your while."

"I seriously doubt that."

"I'm transmitting some data now." Cryos pulled one of the datacards from his pocket and stuck it in a slot on Draco's main console. "Files on Hutt dealings mostly. This is just a sample of course, but I suspect it would be worth several hundred thousand credits to the right buyers. And I have a whole storage crate of datacards."

Fett paused for a long while. "Do you have more of these cards with you?"

"Just a few," he admitted.

"Transfer what you have, then I'll let you know if you managed to grab my attention."

Cryos transmitted the remaining handful of cards and waited. Fett seemed to be waiting an awfully long while to reply. But finally the intercom clicked to life.

"Tell me about this proposition of yours."

Cryos explained his idea to have Boba Fett lead the diversionary squadron in the assault on the former Courosant.

"No deal." Fett answered the instant he had finished speaking. "I work alone. Not by choice, but by the fact that no one could keep up with me. Also, I already said I'm not getting involved in anything involving you or your daughter. Keep your cards."

The Slave II started to power up its engines for another jump to hyperspace.

"Wait." Cryos cried. "I have something else to offer."

The glow from Fett's engines died. "I'm listening."

"Surely you've heard stories of my storeroom."

"The place where you keep things that you've confiscated from various tin pot dictators across the Multiverse. Intriguing to mad scientist perhaps, but not to me."

"It's far more than that. I have experimental weapons and armors. Ships that could fly through the liquid core of a gas giant planet and come out in perfect condition. Vast storehouses of information, including several centuries-old paper bound tomes handwritten by the Mendalorian warriors themselves."

"What… exactly… are you offering me?" For the first time, Boba Fett sounded unsure.

"Anything you want. I'll take you to the place and let you load up your ship. Hell, I'll HELP you load it if you want."

Fett paused for a long time. Cryos thought Draco had turned off the transmitter until he finally replied. "I will take one shipload of anything I want from your storehouse. I will not save a log of where said storehouse is located and I will not sell anything I take with the exception of materials obviously intended for blackmail proposes. In return I will assist you in your plan to retake Courosant and to kill your daughter, but I will not leave my ship or land on the planet under any circumstances. Are these terms agreed upon?"

"Except for the part about killing Yamna, yes. I intend to save her from herself."

"I will not be involved in that part of the mission, so I don't care what you do with her. Besides, my kind will always survive, no matter who is in charge."

"Meat us at the following coordinates and time." Cryos transmitted the data.

"Very well. I just hope your pilots can keep up with me. Because I'm not slowing down for anything. And if they get in my way, I won't hesitate to kill them."

"That shouldn't be a problem." Cryos assured the bounty hunter.

As Boba Fett's ship turned to go, it gave a slight, almost imperceptible wiggle. Any other pilot, any other ship, Cryos would have discounted it as a sticky stabilizer, or an unbalanced thruster, or any number of things that could cause that. But Fett's ship was beyond top of the line, and he devoted his life to keeping it that way.

Cryos had seen, however, pilots rock their ships slightly as a friendly salute to one another.

"No…" Cryos muttered to himself. "Not Fett. I must be seeing things."

He sighed as Draco began powering up another unrequested starburst. A quick glance at the starcharts showed it was on the right way to Kentra's asteroid hideout, but far off enough that Draco was deliberately messing up.

With a shake of his head, he thought to himself. _Home sweet home…_


	10. Home Sweet Home

Disclaimer: Yay! I got sick of studying for endless mind-numbing midterms! So after a few hours of playing Ragnarok I decided to do another chapter of my story! Anyway, like always, I don't own any of the characters I stole from anywhere else. This is actually a shrinking number, as I keep making up new chars and I haven't stolen any new ones in awhile now. Who knows, if this goes on long enough, they might ALL be original characters!

Draco dropped back into realspace only a few million miles from the asteroid hideout. Astronomically, that was pretty close. Cryos was surprised Draco would have chosen to be helpful. At least, he was until the lizard cried out "What the crap!? I stopped too soon!"

"Well since it's convenient, could you let me out if you're gonna go zipping off somewhere?"

"Naw… I'll just go there…" Draco seemed really disappointed. "I was gonna zip through the edge of that star and give you a tan. But it's all ruined now."

"Just as well." Cryos said. "We don't exactly have a lot of time."

Draco flew to the asteroid slowly, but faster than Cryos could have gotten there on his own, so it worked out. In the landing bay, Kentra walked up and demanded. "Where did you go?"

"Some things I had to take care of. We have a new ally for this battle."

"Well he'd better be there. Here's the plan so far: You, me, Draco, Pahrac and some of the Jedi lead an armed strike force down to Courosuant's surface. They mix things up with the army while you and I go after Yamna."

Cryos thought it over. "I think the Jedi would do better in space. It won't do any good to stop her if her army is able to escape and continue fighting."

"Who's this new ally of yours? Do you trust him? And do you think that he could work with the Jedi to stop them from escaping?" Kentra asked.

"He's not exactly new, we've known him for a long time. As for trust, well, of all the bounty hunters I've ever met, Fett's easily the most trustworthy."

Kentra gasped. "You hired Boba Fett!? What's wrong with you? He works for her!"

"No, he works for whoever pays him the most. Which is currently me. And if Skywalker's Jedi can keep up with him I think they'll be able to effectively trap that entire military on-world."

She glared, but finally nodded. "Fine, we're heading out now, let's go."

Cryos asked. "Is everyone piling in that giant super-freighter outside?" He had seen it on the way in.

"The first strike force is." She answered. "It's completely hollowed out, nothing but a shell and engines. We're going to use it to get in past the first few lines of security. Then once we blast out and the enemy ships move in close enough to the planet that they can't hyperjump out the rest of our ships will move in."

Even as they spoke the docking bay was a buzz of activity. Kentra lead him to a shuttle heading over to the freighter. The inside of the freighter was nothing but empty space and ships packed as closely together as possible.

Cryos relaxed in the passenger seat of the shuttle Kentra was piloting.

Before long the hollowed freighter's ancient hyperdrive began rattling to life.

Pahrac and Traitin sat in the seats behind him, giving each other strange looks. Pahrac was suspicious of everyone and Traitin was still wierded out by aliens.

Mazzark and Draco were also staring each other down. Cryos reflected that the two tiny aliens were almost complete opposites. Mazzark followed directions without question, never back talked (_not that he can_, Cryos thought, _he can't talk at all_), and always got his assigned job done. Draco, on the other hand, was a loud-mouthed squawk-box who, on a good day, was almost as dangerous to his opponents as he was to his friends.

"Mazzark hit me!" Draco cried out, snapping Cryos from his thoughts.

"Either of you two knock it off, or we'll turn this ship around!" He scolded Draco.

"We won't actually scrap the mission over their argument, will we?" Traitin asked in surprise.

"Fool…" Pahrac said in his double-voice, causing Traitin to cringe.

"Sorry, I'm new to this." Traitin said.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to bring him along?" Kentra asked Cryos. "He hasn't gotten a lot of training yet."

"Neither had you when you faced off against The One. But you did pretty well." Cryos retorted.

"I've had a lot of time to train in the last ten years." She winked at him. "We'll have to have a 'private' sparring match later."

"EWWW!!! They're gonna KISS!!!" Draco screamed, earning him a smack from Cryos.

Mazzark blinked a message to Cryos.

"I don't know how long it's going to take to get there." He answered.

The tiny Lalz blinked again.

"Yes, he's getting on my nerves too."

"We'll be there soon," Kentra announced. "This hyperdrive is so bad we moved our base close to Courosant."

"Good." Pahrac said. "The stink of fear coming off Traitin is making me sick."

"I can't help it!" He cried. "I've never saved a galaxy before!"

"Try not to think about the almost certain death that awaits us." Pahrac suggested. "Or the fact that if we fail untold trillions of sentient beings will die as a direct result of our actions."

"Thanks… You're a huge help…" Traitin muttered.

"I wasn't helping, I was trying to scare you more." Pahrac said in confusion.

"Pahrac still doesn't fully grasp the concept of sarcasm." Kentra whispered to Cryos.

"So I see…"

"We're coming up on reentry to normal space." Kentra announced. "In five, four, three, two, one."

The ship lurched as they dropped out of hyperspace. Almost instantly, alarm sirens started going off.

"We're under attack!" Draco screamed.

Kentra checked the control panel. "No, the hyperdrive just blew out. It's ok though, we don't need it anymore." The ship shook again. "Ok, NOW we're under attack!" Kentra grabbed a microphone on the control panel and shouted. "All ships: our situation is compromised! Proceed directly to the next phase of the plan! We'll have to fight our way in!"

She slapped a large button and the biggest shock yet shook the massive freighter.

"The freighter's open! Everybody out!"

The small ships swarmed out of the giant freighter's shell.

"How were we detected?" Pahrac asked.

"I don't know," Kentra answered, "but it's not important now."

"I suspect a traitor…" Pahrac glared at Traitin.

"I've only been in this Universe for a couple hours and I haven't left your sight the whole time! How could I have done anything!?"

"Exactly what a traitor would say…"

"Guys, I think we have a bigger problem right now." Cryos said, looking out at the planet ahead.

"What else could possibly go wrong!?" Kentra demanded.

"Well I've been out of the loop for awhile, but last I was here, Courosant had three moons, now it has four."

Traitin looked out the viewport. "It's made of metal!" He announced. "That's no moon! It's a space station!"

Everyone aboard gave him a dirty look.

"Well somebody had to say it…" Draco muttered.


	11. Divide and Conquer

"What do you think it does?" Traitin asked.

"It would be safe to guess it's a giant super weapon. Probably an incredibly outsized turbolaser." Kentra replied.

"Can we blast it?"

Kentra shook her head. "We can try but it won't do any good. With my eyes, I can see that thing pretty well and its quantum armored. Indestructible from the outside."

"New plan." Cryos announced. "We split up. Kentra and I go to the planet after Yamna. The rest of the landing party goes to the new Death Star."

"Cool name. How'd you think of it?" Traitin asked.

Cryos sighed.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Kentra said. "There are millions of troops down there, and intelligence suggests up to a dozen dark Jedi."

"Don't worry, I haven't been relaxing these last ten years."

"Alright, let's go." Kentra switched on the autopilot and headed over to the airlock. "Pahrac, you're in command. Fly the ship down to the Death Star and find some way to destroy the core. At the very least, that will take the main weapon out of commission."

Cryos grabbed Draco and joined Kentra in the airlock. A press of a button cycled the airlock and seconds later, Draco was flying them to the planet.

Traitin, Pahrac and Mazzark looked at each other.

"The way they work together its like Cryos never left." Pahrac commented.

"So now what?" Traitin asked.

Mazzark blinked something.

"Do you know what he said?" Pahrac asked Mazzark.

"No… Cryos is the only one who can understand him."

Mazzark slumped over in exasperation. And pointed at the front window, where a flight of tie fighters was swooping in at them.

"Evasive!" Pahrac screamed at the autopilot and they swerved out of the way just in time to avoid a volley of laser bolts. He slithered over to the control panel and turned off the autopilot. "All ships:" He announced. "We are to engage the fleet. Forget about the landing mission, our job is to keep the enemy fleet and especially the Death Star from escaping."

"So how do we get in?" Traitin asked.

Mazzark jumped up onto the control panel and started hopping on the keys, spelling out a message on the screen. _Find a rout and, I'll get us in._ He wrote.

"No offence," Pahrac said, "but you're two inches tall. I don't understand how you can help."

"I've seen him work." Traitin said. "Don't underestimate him."

"Fine…" He pressed some buttons and the scanners went into action. Within seconds, a map of airlocks and landing bays appeared. "I see a small landing bay, minimal guards. Sound good?"

Mazzark nodded and the ship accelerated.

They swooped into the landing bay, flying directly into a volley of small arms fire.

Mazzark scurried over to the airlock and leapt out, directly onto the face of the closest person shooting at them.

A quick jab with his tail and the man was down. Mazzark somersaulted through the air to the next.

As they spotted him they began to shoot wildly, killing several of their own troops.

The tiny Lalz easily avoided the blaster bolts and continued taking out the men. In the space of only a few seconds, the several dozen troops were unconscious from Mazzark's stings or dead from their own blasters.

Pahrac landed the shuttle and slithered over to the tiny alien. "You… you completely demoralized them. That was phenomenal!"

Mazzark gave a nod of his head, acknowledging the compliment.

"I have to apologize for my first assessment of you, when I first saw you, I thought Cryos had brought back two useless creatures, but I see now that he only brought one."

"Hay!" Traitin protested.

But before they could continue the argument, more soldiers appeared at a far door and started shooting.

Pahrac fired an acid spitball at the door's control panel and the door automatically closed, as per safety precautions.

"Come, we must go." He slithered to a wall and used another acid blob to eat a hole. "Watch the edges, there's still enough acid to burn you." He warned as he slithered through.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Cryos and Kentra rode Draco to the planet. They encountered little resistance as Draco's organic structure was not overly detectable to scanners. Draco's piloting guided them to a spectacular crash landing into a sewage treatment plant.

"I'm going to kill you, Draco!" Kentra screamed and launched herself at the tiny lizard. (Who had somehow managed to clean himself off when he shrunk back down to his smaller form, leaving only Cryos and Kentra covered in filth) But Cryos held her back.

"Don't waste your energy," He told her. "you'll need it later."

Imperial Tower still served as the capital building. And luckily, it was only a few miles away. Unluckily, however, those few miles contained more guards and dark Jedi than most armies.

Cryos opened a storm drain and dropped down, Kentra was a moment behind him.

"I can't see." He muttered.

"I can, just stick close." She responded.

They walked through the darkness for a time, until Kentra suddenly froze. "Uh oh…" She said.

"Uh oh? Uh oh?!" Cryos demanded. "What's the Uh oh?"

"We aren't alone." She said, and shoved him out of the way of a lightsaber that suddenly appeared and slashed through the air where they had been standing only moments ago.

Three more lightsabers blinked to life, illuminating the dark Jedi holding them.

"Go on without me, I'll catch up when I'm done with these guys." She said.

"But how?" Cryos asked. "They have lightsabers!"

"So do I…" She said and pulled the hilt of a lightsaber from her pocket.

"Kentra ignited the lightsaber with a snap-hisssss sound, but no blade appeared. She raised her saber and suddenly Cryos could see it. The shadow of her blade, silhouetted against the other lightsabers. Her saber was black.

"Its made from the only black cousora gem ever found." She said proudly. "No one besides me can see it in the dark."

"Are you sure you're going to be ok?" Cryos asked.

"Don't worry, Luke Skywalker's been training me. I'm one of his top students."

Cryos gave her a leery look, but nodded and ran down the long dark tunnel.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"He is coming, Master." The Dark Jedi student in the Imperial Tower reported.

"Yes, that is to be expected." The dark voice echoed from the shadows all around her. "Have you had any progress on how he can be defeated?"

"None, Master." She reported. "He saves millions without serving the light, and he kills without falling to the dark. I can't understand it."

The voice growled. "Continue your meditation. I have one more surprise in store for him before he gets here."

The room grew lighter as the presence left, busy elsewhere.

"The Dark side is strong," She cloaked student murmured. "but I don't know if anything is strong enough to stop him…"


	12. Win some, Lose some

Cryos blasted past the millions of ground troops, no longer caring who saw him. The troops fired wildly, but the shiny fibers of his cousora gem armor reflected and scattered the bolts, killing hundreds of soldiers. And even the shots that hit his skin did no damage.

He moved as a wave of destruction. Anything in his path was flattened or obliterated.

He felt something from up ahead and stopped as a strange force field like barrier appeared inches in front of his face. Cryos watched several troops run into it, not watching where they were going.

Their bodies went through, but their ghostly spirits remained on the side they started on. Without souls, their bodies died almost instantly, leaving the spirits to dissipate more slowly and, judging from their expressions, in great pain.

Cryos reached his hand through the barrier and lost all feeling in it.

He glanced over at Draco, eating bugs by a pile of stones. "Well it worked last time." He muttered, grabbed the lizard and thrust him through the barrier.

The barrier recoiled from him.

"Cool!" Draco screamed.

"How do you defy the laws of physics?" Cryos asked him, annoyed at both the fact that Draco did something he couldn't and that once again, the lizard had proven to be unkillable.

"I can only do it when it's funny." He replied.

"Whatever, just as long as it works." Cryos flew through the barrier and continued on his way.

Cryos blasted down the door to the tower and flew into darkness. He lit up a small ball of energy in his hand to light the way.

Before he had gotten more than a few feet a spotlight flicked on and shone directly down on him. He froze and waited for something to happen.

The darkness around the beam deepened and became impossibly dark. "I know you're there." He said. "Come out."

"You're good." A voice echoed from all around him. "But then you always were."

The shadows contracted into a roughly human shaped form.

"Darth Posh." Cryos glared. "How did I know you had your filthy hands in this?"

"I find that hard to believe." The Sith scoffed. "Your wife is Force sensitive and she doesn't suspect anything."

"I will find a way to kill you." Cryos promised.

"Also hard to believe. I assure you that no attack you could muster could ever even begin to hurt me."

Cryos threw his energy ball directly upward into the light. The resulting flash and explosion lasted a fraction of a second and gave Cryos just enough cover to vanish.

"The Hunt is on…" Darth Posh laughed and melted into the shadows.

………………………………………………………………………

"Where exactly are we going?" Traitin asked.

"The power core." Pahrac answered.

"And how we plan on destroying it?"

"There should be a way to set up an overload that will result in an explosion. If not, I will burn my way directly into the core and cause as much damage as I can."

"Won't that kill you?" Traitin asked.

"No." Pahrac was silent for some time before he went on. "I am immortal, exactly like Cryos."

"Cryos told me about that. The way he says it, it doesn't sound like as much fun as it seems."

"Its not."

Traitin was dead silent for several long minutes before saying. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It isn't your fault. Just let it go."

Pahrac stopped moving. "We have been found." He announced seconds before a doorway opened and troops started pouring out into the hallway.

Traitin raised his hands and created a crude but effective barrier that the blaster bolts bounced off of.

"Go on ahead!" Pahrac shouted. "Find the core. I can track you by scent and catch up. I'll hold them back."

Mazzark leapt onto Traitins shoulder and nodded. Traitin turned and ran down the hallway.

"How are we supposed to find the core?" Traitin asked the tiny alien.

Mazzark jumped from his shoulder to the wall and slapped the button to open a side door, revealing three frightened technicians who had apparently hid there when word got out that the death star had been boarded.

He jumped onto the head of one of them and pointed down.

"Oh! I get it!" Traitin grabbed the man by his shirt and easily lifted him off the ground with one hand. He gave a feral cat-like roar and extended the claws on his other hand, lifting it near the man's face. "Where's the core!?" He demanded.

The man whimpered and fainted.

Traitin dropped him and grabbed the other two. "WHERE!?"

"Three floors down-" the first began.

"-no, four! Then through the blast shielding-" the other continued.

"-yes! Then down the hallway!"

"Then?" Traitin asked.

"I don't know!" The first tech screamed.

"We've never been down there! Don't hurt us!" The other cried.

"Mazzark, keep them quiet."

The tiny alien stung them both and in seconds they were both unconscious.

Traitin dropped them and ran down the hall. He smashed through the blast doors and bowled over a couple guards who weren't exactly very alert and continued down to the next set of doors.

"Now what…" He muttered.

He heard something above him and just barely avoided a splash of acid followed by Pahrac. The snake-like alien was covered with blood.

"Did you kill them all?" Asked Traitin, slightly shocked by the amount of blood.

"I didn't kill them!" Pahrac insisted. "Well, I didn't kill all of them. Don't tell Cryos, he doesn't like when I kill."

"Which way do we go now?" Traitin asked.

Pahrac sniffed the air. "This way smells like power core." He announced and slithered down the hall.

"How can something smell like power core?" Traitin asked Mazzark.

The tiny alien shrugged and they headed down the hall after Pahrac.

………………………………………………………

Kentra, panting, turned to face the last dark Jedi. The others were mangled or dead on the ground. The last warrior had not yet activated his lightsaber. Kentra started to advance towards him and he raised the deactivated lightsaber hilt.

She realized something was wrong too late to matter.

He flicked the switch and instead of a lightsaber blade a bolt of dark Force lightning shot from the handle.

She tried to block it but the lightning channeled down her black blade, shorting it out and giving her a dose of dark energy that knocked her into unconsciousness.


	13. The 64,000 Dollar Question

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ or Star Wars or very much of anything I use here. I'm just borrowing it for fun and amusement.

Cryos moved through the darkness in complete silence. He avoided obstacles less by sight than he did with his other senses. All his other senses seemed heightened beyond anything he had ever felt before. It puzzled him, but he wasn't about to question good luck.

He was suddenly struck by the urge to jump and did just as the ground below him exploded up in an eruption of Dark Force energy that shattered the concrete.

"Very good, Cryos." Darth Posh's voice boomed. "Now try to avoid this!"

Every faint shadow in the room began to stretch towards him. Cryos was a little confused, the shadows were on the ground and he was floating above it, so how could they harm him?

The realization came suddenly, almost as if someone was whispering in his ear. _They're after _MY_ shadow! _He thought with alarm.

He dodged and twisted, but it was no use. The shadows tangled around his and quite suddenly he couldn't move. He tried to power up but the shadows somehow kept him from raising his power level.

Darth Posh laughed. "Did you truly think you could defeat me!?" He roared. "My powers make me invincible!"

But his laughs died suddenly when the shadows let go and returned to the inert shadows of the room's inanimate objects.

"So much for being invincible." Cryos stood up and brushed himself off.

"But… How did you do that?" Darth Posh's voice demanded.

"Honestly? I have no idea." Cryos admitted. "But I'm not complaining."

He smiled and raised his power level until he began to glow and lit up the entire room. All the shadows that had attacked him vanished in the light, except one. One vaguely human shaped shadow remained.

Cryos blasted it and it vanished.

"This isn't over…" Echoed the Sith's voice.

……………………………………………………………

"We're lost, aren't we?" Traitin asked.

"No," Pahrac insisted. "we simply put too much faith in your directions. Those technicians you interrogated were either misinformed or smart enough to trick you. Either way, you are fools for believing them."

Mazzark blinked something from his perch on Traitin's shoulder. Traitin didn't understand it, but from the annoyed look on the tiny alien's face he had to agree with the sentiment.

"This is getting us nowhere, we have already passed this intersection." Pahrac announced.

"How can you tell?" Traitin asked.

"It is hard to smell much over the scent of your fear, but I can smell that we passed here already." He sighed. "We shall split up and each find our own way to the power core. Whoever finds it first will set off the self-destruct sequence. There should be enough time for us all to escape even if we get completely lost. Escape pods are always well marked. Now, let us go."

Mazzark hopped to the wall and started scuttling down the right hallway. Pahrac turned left and slithered off down that hallway.

Traitin looked down the hallway in front of him.

The only of his species in this entire Universe, traveling with aliens with super powers, battling to destroy a planet-destroying super-weapon in a war that, until today, he had never known existed.

"Maybe I shouldn't have let Cryos heal me…" He muttered and started down the hallway.

…………………………………………………………....

Kentra awoke slowly. Her body was not used to being unconscious for any length of time and was a little slow to recover.

She looked over and could see a figure in a dark cloak who seemed to be holding the room's only light source.

The figure turned slightly and revealed the light source to be a glowing, floating orb. It looked almost like a small energy blast, but Kentra had never seen one that transparent.

Even as she watched it became more and more see-through, until it almost looked like a glowing soap bubble. Kentra stared in fascination as something started to move inside it. With her powerful vision, she spotted a humanoid form with a long tail moving inside.

"Cryos…" She tried to say, but her voice was barely a whisper.

The hooded figure turned and the bubble popped. It raised one finger to its lips. "Shhhhhh…"

The figure turned towards the shadows on the far side of the room and dropped to one knee.

The shadows darkened and formed into a vague person, then spoke in a deep, booming voice. "Someone is helping Cryos, did you detect any Force users helping him?"

The hooded figure shook its head.

"Neither did I, so whoever they are, they are powerful. I did not think even Skywalker was powerful enough to evade my detection. But perhaps he found someone in whatever far-flung Universe he wound up in stupid enough to help him." The shadow paused for a moment, then, anger in check, continued. "So I see one of our dark Jedi managed to catch Kentra. I trust it was the one we equipped with that experimental lightsaber?"

The hooded person nodded.

"I thought so, none of them were nearly strong enough to stand against her without a few tricks."

Kentra concentrated on not moving as though her life depended on it, and it probably did.

"Any progress on how we can defeat Cryos once and for all?" The shadow asked.

The figure nodded.

"Good, will it be ready soon?"

The figure nodded again.

"Very well, I shall delay him. But without a permanent solution we will not have much time."

The figure bowed lower as the shadow faded away. When it was gone, the hooded person stood up and started walking towards Kentra.

"Who-" she started to ask but the person shushed her again. They cocked their head for a moment and seemed to listen, then nodded.

"Who are you and why did you help me?" Kentra asked.

The figure took a deep sigh before hesitantly removing the dark hood that covered their face.

"But… No…" Kentra whispered.

Yamna nodded. "Yes, it is me. And as for why I protected you and my father, I do not know. But I do know that both of you will die by my hand tonight."

"Don't do this!" Kentra insisted. "Luke Skywalker told me that even the darkest of Sith can be turned back to the Light Side! We can help you!"

"I do not WANT to be HELPED!" Yamna roared back and kicked her mother, sending her smashing into the wall. "I now have the means to destroy both you and my father once and for all! Then I will rule by Darth Posh's side for all eternity as masters of this Universe!"

Kentra coughed pale green blood. "If you're so committed to the Dark Side, why did you help Cryos and I?"

Yamna glared at her, then waved her hand. Kentra didn't see it but she sure felt the wave of dark energy pass over her body. And she fell back into unconsciousness.


	14. Reunion

Meanwhile the battle in space continued.

Things were not looking good for the rebels. They were vastly outnumbered and using outdated equipment.

Luke Skywalker and his Jedi Knights were blasting down one enemy after another and had not so far suffered a single loss, but their squadron was in the minority there.

Almost every other flight group had already suffered losses, some of them heavily, and waves of opponents were still leaving the enemy carriers.

Luke suddenly got an urge through the Force to fire a missile and he did without question. The missile struck the lead fighter in a squadron of modified TIE fighters just leaving an enemy Star Destroyer, the wake of debris took out several of its wingmen and caused minor damage to the docking bay.

He was quite proud of himself until another wave of TIEs took out his left wingman.

He felt his friend's death through the Force.

"NO!" Luke cried and started to chase after the TIE that had fired the killing shot.

He took the offender out easily enough but quickly found himself surrounded.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, found himself with no way out. The Force was giving him nothing. Usually if he opened himself to the Force completely it would provide him with some way to escape from any situation. But not this time. Luke resigned himself to death.

Then the TIEs exploded almost in unison.

Through the wreckage flew a truly unique ship, unique as the man who piloted it. Boba Fett's ship was truly one of a kind. Rumor was he had blackmailed Kuat Drive Yards, the most prestigious shipbuilding yard in the galaxy, to build it for him, then destroyed the plans and everyone associated with the project so they could never produce another. Rumors were often just that: rumors. But when dealing with Fett it was never wise to dismiss possibilities.

"Jedi," The X-Wings comm clicked to life with Boba Fett's flat voice. "Cryos has paid me to help you. I will offer this chance once: Fight with me. The odds are stacked highly against us. Normally I would not even be in this situation but I have been offered a very good deal."

"If you are willing to have us we would be fools to turn away any help." Luke said in shock. "Thank you, by the way."

"I went out of my way to help you, you owe me some missiles." Fett responded.

"Help yourself to our stocks after the battle." Luke answered happily.

"Very well, let's end this quickly. If you and your Jedi think you can keep up I have a battle plan. Transmitting it now."

The complex battle plan displayed on the tiny screen in Luke's X-Wing. He gave a low whistle of admiration.

"How did you come up with this?" He asked.

"Unimportant." Fett told him. "Can you do it?"

"Yes." Luke answered confidently as he sent out a mental signal to call all the Jedi squadrons to him.

"Very well, we begin now. Don't screw it up or you'd better hope you don't survive the battle."

Luke gave a little smile of amusement, until he realized Boba Fett wasn't kidding.

…………………………………………………………

Cryos was getting tired of the endless hallways and equally endless security guards of the Imperial Tower. Not that it was any real trouble for him to eliminate common guards, but because he was getting impatient. Normally he could just have blasted through to where he was going, but he didn't know where Yamna was. Normally he could have sensed her, but Darth Posh's dark aura was clouding his ability to detect things.

So he was looking for some kind of clue as to where to go.

None of the guards seemed to know anything at all.

After some time spent searching, Cryos stumbled across a gigantic metal door. It was almost identical to the one he had destroyed years ago in the assault on this very tower. As such, he knew there were probably a large number of guards stationed behind it.

Cryos powered up a bit and with one blade made a clean cut all the way around the perimeter of the door. The sound of tearing metal was deafening.

The door fell with a crash and a volley of blaster bolts. Cryos couldn't figure out what exactly they were planning to do. They had to know that he was immune to blaster fire, and even more so with his new armor.

He disabled them without killing very many and continued to the next room.

The next room was huge and Cryos had almost reached the center of it before he sensed the danger. The doors closed and the lights went out. He stood in the darkness for a few moments before falling into a fighting stance and extending his wrist blades.

For a time, nothing happened. Then, slowly, Cryos began to sense a presence in the room with him. He couldn't pinpoint it, but he could tell it was very close by.

All at once he spun around and blocked with his blades. He moved just in time to stop a lightsaber blade from decapitating him.

As the lightsaber slowly burned through his wrist blades he looked past it to its holder and gasped.

She looked so much like her mother, but had elements of his features as well. He could see the Sayian muscle tone and the Ice-Jin coloring of her flesh.

Her face though, was twisted into such a mask of hate that he could hardly believe it was the little girl he had known years ago.

Yamna pulled back the lightsaber, leaving deep notches in his arm blades, and struck again.

Cryos batted the lightsaber back each time, but each touch took a chunk out of his blade. After a few minutes of this, both fighters took a step back and paused.

"I've waited a long time for this, father." Yamna said coldly.

"You have no idea what I sent through to save you and then to come back to you!" Cryos yelled at her. "I died trying to rid this Universe of that monster that you now ally yourself with!"

"You left us!" Yamna roared back. "I had no choice! No one to train me! My mother certainly couldn't keep up with me. And even if you and her were here, neither of you could have helped me control the Force!"

"There is always a choice." Cryos said calmly. "If you ever listened to Luke Skywalker you would know that." Cryos twisted his wrists and the battered blades dropped to the ground. Then he grabbed his staff from where it had fallen when Yamna first attacked.

"You lay down your blades for a staff?" Yamna asked in amusement. "You are such a fool."

"Perhaps I am," Cryos admitted, "I was never one to judge myself on that sort of thing. What I do know, however, is how to fight. If you think that your Darth Posh has prepared you to deal with me, go ahead and try."

Yamna growled and launched herself at him with lightsaber outstretched.


	15. Lessons and Dirty Tricks

Cryos blocked Yamna's lightsaber with his leech tree staff. To her shock and amazement, the simple wooden staff held.

"Why won't it wont cut?" She demanded as she pushed as hard as she could.

"I'm just full of surprises." Cryos responded as he whipped his tail at her face.

Yamna did a back flip to escape and looked up just in time to see Cryos swing his staff right at her face. She jumped back as Cryos went on the offensive.

"I will not let you destroy this Universe!" He roared, swinging his staff at her. The swings that hit the floor shattered the ground.

Yamna grew tired of dodging and grabbed his staff with both hands. The two wrestled over it for a moment but neither could pull it from the other's grasp. Yamna tried twisting it to break it, but the staff didn't bend so much as an atom's width.

"My staff has quite a few interesting abilities." Cryos told her. "For example, the harder you try to break it the stronger it becomes."

She shoved him back and then vanished with a sudden burst of speed. Cryos kept his cool and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

The ground beneath his feet exploded and Yamna attacked viciously with her lightsaber.

Cryos easily blocked every swing and then lightly tapped her on the head with his staff. "You're sloppy when you're angry. Your mother is the same way."

"Don't compare me to HER!" Yamna roared and punched him. Cryos blocked but the blow was so hard that he was sent flying backwards. He regained his balance just in time to dodge another attack.

The two stopped and waited a moment. Yamna pulled another lightsaber from her belt and ignited it. Cryos checked his staff but found no damage.

"Aren't you going to attack me?" Yamna asked him.

"In good time." He replied. "This fight is far from over."

…………………………………………………………

Kentra awoke again. This time she was alone.

She struggled to her feet and gasped as she put weight on her left foot. It was either broken or very badly sprained. She tried to fly, but the pain was interfering with her concentration.

She hopped over to the wall where a chair sat in front of some kind of computer console. The chair was simple wood, and easily smashed into a splint.

As she wrapped up her leg she saw an indicator light on the computer blinking. She turned it on and saw Yamna fighting Cryos.

"No…" She murmured.

Kentra knew that look she saw in Cryos's eyes. She had only seen that look a bare handful of times. He was fighting completely seriously with the intent to kill.

She looked at Yamna and saw a perversion of the same look. She looked so much like her father, but her face was twisted in a mask of haltered.

"I have to stop this." She said as she wrapped up her leg with two long pieces of the chair. With her leg bound and using another piece as a crutch she set off down the hallway.

…………………………………………………………

Cryos expertly spun his staff, blocking every slash of Yamna's twin lightsabers. He still wasn't attacking, and his calm ease was infuriating Yamna all the more.

"Fight me!" She screamed and threw her lightsaber at him.

Cryos easily smacked it away. "Are you serious?"

He sensed danger at the last second. From the corner of each eye he caught a glimpse of movement. The lightsaber was flying! No, Yamna was controlling it through the Force!

And now that she no longer had his full attention, Yamna ran to attack him with her remaining lightsaber.

Cryos knew he couldn't block them both. They were going to hit him at the same time and not even he was that fast.

Making a quick decision he threw his staff like a javelin at The flying lightsaber. It flew exactly how he planned and hit the handle of the lightsaber, shattering the focusing crystal inside and reducing the weapon to a useless chunk of metal.

But now he had to deal with Yamna.

He pulled off his courora gem shirt and when she stabbed at him he spun and wrapped the blade up in the shirt. It sparkled wildly under the assault of light, but held.

Yamna deactivated the lightsaber for just a split second, letting the shirt fall to the floor. The she reactivated and slashed again.

Cryos jumped and started to do a back flip Yamna dove forward but to her surprise Cryos landed on his hands and didn't finish the flip, leaving her too close to properly swing her blade and him upside down.

He whipped his tail around her wrists, further impairing her movement. She managed to move the blade just enough to hit his now exposed stomach.

In desperation, he grabbed the blade with his foot. He grimaced as the blade burned the skin right off his toes, but he didn't let go. Yamna struggled but couldn't free her blade and with the angle she couldn't reach the switch anymore.

Cryos twisted his back and managed to get another loop of tail around her hands. He squeezed and crushed this lightsaber as well.

He breathed a sigh of relief as the skin on his toes started growing back and Yamna roared in frustration.

She spun around and broke his grip. She moved her hands to make sure they weren't broken, but found nothing wrong. "That was a cheap trick." She said.

Cryos snorted. "You're one to talk."

Yamna smiled. "But now we're both unarmed."

"Perhaps. But I learned long ago to not depend on weapons in a fight."

Yamna held up a ball of energy in her hand. It was a powerful little energy bomb on its own, but it sparkled with dark Force energy.

Cryos eyed it wearily, this fight had just gone up a notch.

She flew at him, intending to hit him directly with it. He knew he could dodge, but she would just chase him down till she got him with it. Cryos couldn't afford to let that bomb hit him directly, he already knew what dark Force energy could do to him.

He held out his hand and concentrated all his life force into it. He could attempt to block with that, but it would hurt, a lot. Instead he held out his hand at where his staff had landed across the room.

The Leech Tree wood was attracted to the life force in his hand and flew to him. He caught it and instantly felt the staff draining huge amounts of life force from him. Normally it only could only take low amounts, but with it already concentrated in his hand it could take as much is it wanted.

Cryos slammed the staff into the floor between himself and Yamna. He could already feel the staff starting to change. He was only going to have one chance at this and had to time it perfectly, he started force feeding the staff. Pumping even more life force into it than it was already taking.

Yamna hit the staff before she realized what was happening. The simple wooden staff expanded around her hand, absorbing and snuffing out the energy bomb in her hand. The dark Force energy in the bomb was insignificant compared to how much life Cryos had given the staff.

She struggled but it continued to expand around her.

In less than a second, Yamna was firmly imbedded in a fully grown Leech Tree.

The tree stood only ten feet tall, with a swollen trunk full of holes that normally served as homes for the Lalz on their native planet.

Yamna's head and shoulders were all that was visible sticking out of the tree. She tried to fight, but it was no use. Any energy she summoned up was siphoned away by the tree.

"You said you learned to fight without weapons!" She accused.

"And I did." He assured her. "But when you have weapons, why go without?"

She growled in anger and frustration.

"Ok, I admit it. Now THAT was a dirty trick."


	16. New Darkness

Traitin wandered the halls of the Death Star. He had no idea whatsoever where he was going, just wandering and trying to avoid going in circles.

The hallway abruptly ended with a large room. The far wall was completely covered with computer consoles and blinking lights. A single trooper sat at the consoles, looking quite bored.

Traitin crept up behind the man with cat like stealth. Before the man could react he was suspended by the collar of his shirt.

"I am going to ask once: where is the control room for the power core?"

"Th-th-this is i-i-it." He admitted.

"Huh?" Traitin asked. "Shouldn't it be guarded or something?"

"You were never supposed to get this far…" The man moaned. "Most of the troops are out trying to make sure you don't get aboard. And most of the ones still here are tracking down the other alien."

"You mean other two aliens."

"There are more of you? Oh… We're doomed…"

"Probably, but first I have to figure out how to detonate the power core. I don't suppose you'll be any help there?"

"Mostly I just call a technician when something is starting to look bad. They really didn't give me much of any training at all."

Traitin glanced over at the wall of computer terminals covered with unfamiliar symbols. "I wish I had had time to learn to read basic." The man stifled a snort. "Quiet you." Traitin gave him a good shake. "Now show me how to send out a station-wide announcement."

"And if I do? You'll just blow up the station!"

Traitin smiled. "If you do I'll stuff you in an escape pod on my way out. If you make me figure it out on my own I'll leave you tied up right here so you can watch the count-down."

He reconsidered. "It's the large greenish button on the right panel."

Traitin dropped the man and pressed the button.

"Pahrac, Mazzark." His voice echoed through the entire station. "I've secured the power core but… uh… I'll probably need some help with detonating it. If you guys can get here ASAP I'd appreciate it."

A few moments later the console clicked to life again and Pahrac's voice came through.

"You fool!" He roared.

"What? I found it! Didn't I?"

"Yes," Pahrac said calmly before shouting again. "But not only did you announce to every stormtrooper on the station exactly where you are, but you failed to tell us how to find you!"

"Oh… oops…"

……………………………………………………

Cryos stepped back to admire his handiwork. Yamna was firmly imbedded inside the Leech Tree, and the more she fought against it the more life force it sucked from her body.

"So are we willing to have a civilized conversation now?" He asked her.

"You underestimate the power of the Dark Side of the Force." She growled and began to concentrate.

Cryos could literally see the dark energy crackling across her body and into the Leech Tree. He could see the wood start to dissolve as the dark Force energy canceled out the energy it had absorbed from Cryos.

Yamna laughed as the tree shrank, eventually being reduced to the simple staff it had started as.

Cryos picked up the staff, he could feel it weakly drawing strength from him. Its power reserves were pretty much completely used up. Right now it really was nothing more than a wooden staff, no more useful in battle than a toothpick.

He slowly walked to the far wall and gently leaned it in the corner. Later it might be useful, but for now the staff needed rest.

Yamna laughed. "What will you do without your precious staff?"

Cryos beared his teeth and extended his wrist blades, but didn't attack.

She smiled back at him and extended her own wrist blades, almost identically shaped, but much thinner and lighter. Cryos knew he could easily shatter her blades, but she would be quicker with them than him.

Yamna went on the offensive again. Her blades danced through the air almost too fast to see. Cryos tried to block them but was too slow.

He staggered back, trailing blood from a dozen gashes on his face.

By the time he wiped the blood away the wounds were healed and he began to attack for the first time since the battle began.

Yamna spun and rolled in midair, managing to avoid his strikes, till finally she was forced to block. Her blade shattered under Cryos's thicker one, but she managed to swing the other up to block. His blade had lost too much momentum breaking the first to shatter her other.

Yamna went offensive again, forcing Cryos to move back and lose ground to her superior speed.

She raised her remaining blade high over his head and swung it down, Cryos couldn't move fast enough to dodge or block.

A burst of green light filled the room. Cryos was surrounded by a bright green aura and his hair was standing up and waving wildly.

Yamna gave a growl of frustration as her blade impacted on his head and cut his skin, but shattered on contact with his hard skull.

"I suppose I should have expected that." She said.

"Nothing is ever easy." Cryos responded as he looked at her with his now purple eyes.

………………………………………

Luke Skywalker couldn't believe how his luck had turned around. Just a few short minutes ago he had thought he was going to die, now with Boba Fett fighting alongside them the tides were turning.

Fett's ship was a flying arsenal. It had more firepower than a dozen X-Wings put together. Added to that was its armor and maneuverability. Luke had seen it hit only once, but the blast, which would have easily crushed the X-Wing, barely slowed it down. And by all rights Fett should have been hit a dozen more times already, but his agile ship avoided all the blasts.

From time to time, Fett sent out commands to the Jedi. They weren't orders so much as suggestions. Fett broadcast his plans and then executed them flawlessly with or without help. He didn't seem to care if anyone helped or not, but when Luke or the other Jedi helped, the plans went faster.

However, Luke was experiencing an ever growing sense of danger. Something bad was going to happen soon.

"I'm detecting an energy build up from the new death star." Fett announced. "I expect it to finish priming its main weapon in a matter of minutes.

"How long till they can fire?" Luke asked.

"Unknown." The bounty hunter responded. "It depends on weather or not they wish to fully charge the weapon or not before firing. I suspect more than twenty minutes but not more than thirty."

"We'll have to hope for a speedy resolution on this battle then." Luke said.

………………………………………………………

Cryos battled his daughter on the planet below.

"You cannot win against the dark side." She cried out as she dove in for another attack.

"I've never let anyone tell me what I can't do and I'm not going to start now." He said as he parried her regenerated blades.

"You underestimate the dark side's power." She said and held up her hand, literally glowing with dark energy. She threw it at the ground and it sparked across the floor at him.

Cryos jumped to avoid it but wasn't quite fast enough and it grazed his foot.

Shooting pain shot up his leg, followed by numbness.

"What did you do?" He demanded when he realized his regeneration powers were doing nothing to restore feeling to the limb.

"It's a kind of soul toxin," She told him. "I can't kill your body so I will directly attack your spirit directly. That indirect hit will wear off shortly, but if I can hit you with enough of it, the effects just might be permanent."

Cryos gasped as his daughter's maniacal laughter echoed through the room.


	17. Ultimate Darkness

Traitin sat in the engine room, waiting for Mazzark and Pahrac to arrive.

He had already sealed the doors and destroyed rendered the control mechanisms unusable.

In the far corner of the room sat the lone trooper who had been assigned to watch the console. Traitin had tied him with wires ripped from the door controls. He looked rather unhappy with the arrangement, but seemed to know he couldn't do anything about it and wasn't about to try.

He suddenly screamed. Traitin looked over where he was looking and saw Mazzark squeezing through a slot in an air vent.

"Mazzark!" Traitin was never so happy to see the tiny alien. "How did you find me?"

Mazzark just stared at him for several moments.

"Oh, right. I can't understand your language…" Traitin felt stupid for forgetting. "Have you seen Pahrac?"

The tiny Lalz shook his head.

"Did Cryos teach you to read this language?" Traitin asked, pointing at the control panel.

He made a little fluttering gesture with his hand. Translation: Sorta, but not enough.

"Fine pair we are…" Traitin muttered as he settled back in to wait for Pahrac.

……………………………………………………

Kentra limped down the hallway.

When she had first come to this planet, she had been fully prepared to kill her daughter, but now that she had seen her, she knew she couldn't. And she wouldn't let Cryos do it either.

She had no idea how she was going to stop their fight, but she was compelled to try.

She wondered if this was the Force acting through her. She hoped it was. If it was then it probably had a purpose, but if it was just her maternal instincts kicking in then she might be limping to her death.

Kentra stopped and leaned against the wall to catch her breath.

From high in the tower above her she could feel two great strengths fighting. Though they were evenly matched, the feelings she got from them were like night and day.

Cryos showed up in her senses as a beacon of light. He didn't feel like a Jedi fighting, but she could feel his good intentions. He was calm and in control of himself.

Yamna on the other hand, was like a fire surrounded by darkness. Her rage was burning brightly, but her power was tainted by the dark side.

Yamna gasped as she sensed great pain and fear from above her.

"Cryos!" She shouted. She wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but he was in trouble.

Struggling back to her feet, she continued her slow journey.

……………………………………………………

_I'm in trouble._ Cryos thought.

Feeling was slowly returning to his leg, but he could feel some kind of lasting damage that his healing powers couldn't fix. He could not afford to be hit by that attack again.

Yamna fired the beam again, this time through the air. Cryos dodged, barely.

"Here's a trick I learned from my master, Darth Posh." She shouted and began to power up. With a burst of energy she transformed to Super-Sayian. But something was horribly wrong. Instead of the Green light she had had when going super as a child, it was dark purple, almost black. Her hair went from its normal silver color to a light purple and stood straight up. Cryos gasped when she opened her eyes, they were blood red.

"Now feel the true power of the dark side!" She screamed and fired a beam of the toxic dark energy at him.

Cryos dodged, but just barely.

She dove at him and he tried to wrap enough energy around himself to form a shield. Her dark energy struck the shield and shattered it, scattering the dark energy from her hand as well. Some of it hit Cryos, but some rebounded and hit her.

They both fell to the ground.

"I'm not sure how you did that, but as soon as I can move I'm going to end this." Yamna said in slightly slurred speech.

Cryos wasn't really sure how he did it either, he didn't think his shield would be nearly strong enough. But the energy he had been hit with had paralyzed him as well.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Yamna twitching slightly, trying to move.

With supreme effort, he raised one arm and managed to flip himself over into his stomach. He felt like he was in a thousand times normal gravity as he pushed himself off the ground and somehow managed to get his feet under him.

Cryos staggered over to where Yamna was still laying helpless on the ground. He raised his arm and leveled his wrist blade at her neck, prepared to strike.

The room grew darker. "You would kill your own daughter?" The Dark voice of Darth Posh echoed through the room. "You do realize she does not have all your power. Her body regenerates only to a point, her life force does not spring eternal like yours. Can you kill your own daughter?"

Cryos froze. He couldn't kill her, no matter what she had become.

"You are weak." Came the Sith's voice from directly behind Cryos. He spun and found himself face to face with a ghostly apparition of the dead Sith Lord. "Weak," He repeated, "and ultimately defeated."

Cryos screamed and fell to his knees as another one of Yamna's Dark Side blasts hit him in the back.

He managed to roll, more of a flop actually, onto his back and raise his hand to attempt to project another shield between them. But it was useless. He simply didn't have enough life force left to form any kind of protection.

Another toxic beam hit him directly in the chest. Cryos flopped to the ground, no longer moving.

"Very good, my student." Darth Posh's shadowy figure stepped out of a dark corner. "Now finish him. Fill him with so much Dark energy that he never awakens again!"

"In a moment." She responded. "I want to hear his last words first."

"Obey your Master!" Darth Posh insisted.

She shot him a look that would melt concrete. "When I am ready, I will finish him."

The Sith Lord flinched under her gaze.

She walked over to where he lay and looked into his unblinking eyes. "So father, do you hate me?"

Cryos's lip twitched as he tried to speak. "N-n-… nn… no."

"You lie." She snapped and kicked him in the face.

Purple blood ran from his lip. Several seconds went by, but the cut didn't heal.

"I c-came back here to see you. After s-s-" He stopped and seemed to concentrating on forming words as a tear dripped down his cheek. "After so long, I was still hap-happy I could see you on-one more time. I had come to t-terms with not s-s-seeing my family ag-ag-again. So even seeing yo-you like th-th-this makes it all worth itttt…"

Cryos trailed off, his breathing stopped and the faint light in his eyes vanished. The tear that had been sliding down his cheep dropped off and splattered to the floor.


	18. Hope and Sacrifices

"But… No…" Yamna took a step back from him. "This isn't how you were supposed to be!" She screamed. "You weren't supposed to be so caring! So kind! So- so forgiving…" Her screams turned to murmurs." How could anyone forgive being killed?"

"Because," Came a voice from the far side of the room. "That's just the kind of person he was."

Yamna looked over and saw her mother standing in the doorway.

Kentra slowly began to limp towards them as she spoke. "Your father was the kindest person I'd ever known. He didn't realize it, but his heart was even stronger than he was."

"Stop this, woman!" Darth Posh warned, but she kept coming.

"He put on a show when you fought him, but he could never really fight you seriously. He was too kind for that."

"I won't warn you again!"

Kentra looked at him. "Why warn me at all? What do I have left?"

"Very well, I've wanted to do this for a very long time."

Darth Posh raised his dark translucent hand and shot a bolt of Dark Force lightning at her.

Kentra didn't even flinch as it shot towards her, resigned to her fate.

But at the last moment, the lightning turned away. It spiraled towards Yamna and gathered in her outstretched palm.

"Yamna! What are you doing?"

She glared at him, a longer taste of the look from before.

"I finally see it all. Your lies and half truths. I don't know how I was so blind before. You will never hurt me, or my family, again."

The Sith Lord began to vanish into the shadows, trying to escape. But Yamna simply waved her hand and he suddenly became solid. He pawed at the shadows, trying to escape but to no avail.

She powered up one final toxic energy blast in her hand and launched it at him.

Darth Posh screamed as the dark energy consumed his spirit and he faded away. His dark presence vanished last, finally disappearing from the Universe altogether.

"It's finally over…" Kentra said. "But at a high price…" She looked at her husband's body and began to cry.

Yamna sat down next to Cryos, put her hands on his chest and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Kentra asked.

"Help me." She responded. "I can't do this on my own."

"But his spirit has been poisoned and corrupted. I don't think even the Force can heal that."

"The light side alone can't, and neither can the dark side. But I've been thinking for a long time, the Force is bigger than just light and dark. I think that what we see as the light and dark sides of the Force is just our inability to grasp something so huge. I'm sure Luke Skywalker has taught you just about everything he knows about the light side, and Darth Posh taught me a lot about the dark side. Between the two of us we know just about everything mere mortals know about the Force."

"What are you suggesting?" Kentra asked.

"We combine our knowledge and power. I know it sounds crazy, but I think it might just work."

Kentra sighed. "I suppose it's worth a try."

She sat next to Cryos across from her daughter and closed her eyes.

………………………………………………

Traitin sat in the chair at the control panel for the power core of the death star. He sighed. It was very frustrating to be here and not be able to do anything.

A muffled explosion rattled the room. He saw the blast shielded door bent inward.

Mazzark dropped from where he had been pacing on the ceiling and landed on Traitin's shoulder.

Trying to remember his training, Traitin fell into a fighting stance. He wasn't willing to risk being shot, he didn't think that he had progressed far enough to be laser-proof, but if he was careful he could dodge them.

Another blast shook the room and bent the door further. Now he could hear their voices through the weakened metal.

But then he heard shouts and laser-fire. Their screams lasted only a few seconds, and then there was silence.

The door hissed and sizzled and finally collapsed. On the other side was Pahrac, acid still dripping from his teeth and covered with gore.

The technician Traitin had tied up in the corner screamed and tried to slide further away from what surely appeared to be an apparition of death.

Pahrac grabbed the poor man by his lapels and hefted him to eye level. He let out a very long and loud roar that shook the entire room.

The poor man's eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out. Traitin couldn't blame him, he wanted to pass out too when Pahrac turned his attention to him.

"Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get here?" The mutant Kelbrid roared. "You really couldn't have made it any harder if you tried!"

"Uh… Could we maybe… What we came here for?" Traitin stuttered as he tried to redirect the toothy alien's attention to the control panel.

The mutant Kelbrid growled, but slithered to the control panel and started adjusting settings.

It wasn't long before he slithered to the wall next to the panel and pressed a hidden switch. The wall slid open to reveal a huge blast door made of a dark metal with a tiny view port in it. Judging from the thickness of the glass, the door was at least two feet thick. Traitin recognized the metal it was made of, it was the same as what was coating the Death Star, indestructible quantum armor.

Pahrac roared and hit the door. "The final control panel is on the other side of this door, in a room full of radiation, we have no radiation suits so only I could enter without suffering a lethal dose. But that doesn't matter since we have no way to open the door anyway, its much too heavily encoded and my acid won't even tarnish quantum armor."

Mazzark seemed to be thinking. He jumped onto the view port and pointed at it, seemingly asking a question.

Pahrac looked at him and said. "Don't worry, the radiation isn't escaping."

Mazzark shook his head and pointed at the view port again.

The larger alien tilted his head, trying to figure out what he was getting at.

Finally, Mazzark mimed him spitting acid on the window.

"Yes, I could burn though the glass," Pahrac said. "but I couldn't fit through."

The tiny alien pointed at himself.

"But the radiation would kill you!" Traitin shouted, picking up on what he was getting at.

Mazzark nodded.

Pahrac slowly nodded. "Very well, I will show you what to do."


	19. Revival and Loss

Luke Skywalker was snapped back to reality by Boba Fett's voice.

"Jedi, I am detecting a difference in the energy buildup in the Death Star."

Honostly, Luke was more worried about the energy buildup he had been detecting when he was interrupted. Something was occurring on the planet surface. Someone was channeling the Force in a way he had never felt before. He couldn't even tell if it was the light or dark side they were using, all he knew is that whatever they were doing, it was big.

"Jedi Skywalker." Fett repeated. "I am uploading new plans with the energy buildup in consideration."

Luke took a quick look. "These plans have us retreating some distance."

"Yes, the Death Star is beginning a self-destruct sequence." The bounty hunter replied calmly.

"What?" Luke momentarily forgot about what he was sensing from the planet surface. "All squadrons! Fall back!" He shouted over the comm system.

The remaining X-Wings and assorted other ships began to pull back to a safe distance, leaving the TIEs and their hanger ships to celebrate for the moment. They would notice the energy build up soon as well.

Luke stole a glance back at the planet. The power he had sensed was fading, but it left a lasting impression on him. He pondered what could have created it as they flew away.

……………………………………………………………

Traitin ran through the passageways of the Death Star, dragging the unconscious technician. Pahrac had said to leave him, but Felons always keep their promises.

It wasn't too hard to find a docking bay, everyone in the station was headed to one and seeing him coming only made them move faster.

He found a small transport and removed the passengers already aboard. They weren't particularly happy about leaving, but they couldn't say much to a person strong enough to heave them a good distance out the hatch.

He propped the still passed out tech against the wall and stood watch over the hatchway, surveying the chaos as everyone tried to find a ship and wondered what was keeping Pahrac.

After only a minute, the snake like alien slithered into the bay, as Traitin expected, nobody was too eager to stand in his way.

He climbed onto the transport Traitin had commandeered and went right to the controls.

As he brought the ship online Traitin asked "Did Mazzark…?"

Pahrac nodded. "He was brave until the end, even in the face of his own demise. Except for Cryos, a finer warrior I have never known or had the honor to fight next to."

Traitin slumped into the chair. He had been hoping that, somehow, the tiny alien had survived. He looked over at Pahrac and noticed something.

"Pahrac," He said slowly, "are you crying?" He had never seen the mutant Kelbrid show any emotion besides anger.

"NO!" The response was roared back at him, thick with the usual rage. "It's just the exhaust fumes from so many ships taking off."

Traitin almost managed a small smile (almost) as their transport flew towards the planet below.

……………………………………………………………

Cryos slowly became aware of the hard cold floor under him. He tried to move his body, but was only able to twitch. Four hands suddenly held him down.

"Don't try to move yet" Said a voice.

"It's working!" Exclaimed another.

"We've only got the worst of it, its going to get a lot harder to heal the rest of the damage." The first said back.

There was silence again.

Cryos was defiantly confused at this point.

The second voice was Kentra, but the first one sounded like Yamna. Why would she be healing him?

Actually, for that matter, how were they healing him at all? Hadn't Yamna said that the damage from her attack as permanent? He had been pretty sure he was actually dead this time.

Time slowly passed and more feeling returned to his limbs. He was debating trying to move again when he heard Kentra speak again.

"Look!" She shouted. "His wounds are healing!"

"Stop getting distracted!" Yamna quipped back. "We need to keep the flow steady, if either light or dark gets out of balance we'll lose him and this time we won't be able to bring him back."

Cryos decided not to try moving.

After some time, he was getting impatient.

"Yamna, I think we're done." Kentra said.

"Maybe," she responded, "Dad, can you move?"

Cryos tried to find out. He slowly managed to raise one arm into the air. "Still… a little… hard to move…" He mumbled.

"Well we've totally cleared your healing abilities of any of the toxin, so they should take care of any residue pretty quickly."

"How?" He gasped.

"We worked together and combined everything we knew about the light and dark sides of the Force." Kentra said.

"Neither side could heal you on its own." Yamna continued. "Which is why I said that the damage was permanent. But with two working together, one working with each side of the Force, we were able to repair the damage and remove the poison."

"And I helped!" Chirped a familiar voice.

"Draco, where have you been?" Cryos said. Words came easier now. "Tell me, what exactly did you help with?"

"I helped myself to the kitchens!" Draco shouted cheerfully.

Cryos sighed and said. "You'd better hope there's some left or your scaly skin is going to be black and blue instead of red and blue."

The night sky outside suddenly lit up in a brilliant explosion. Cryos saw it even through his closed eyes and managed to open them a little for a better look.

The Death Star had exploded.

The quantum armor shell was still intact, but flames were erupting from every landing bay and view port.

"They did it." Cryos said happily.

Kentra put her hand on his shoulder. "Something's not right."

"What?" Cryos asked her.

"I don't know. I just-" She stopped. "Lets get up to the nearest landing pad."

"But what happened? What's wrong?" Cryos asked again.

"We'll all find out together." Yamna said as she helped him to his feet. "There's a landing pad this way." She announced as she walked out of the room.

Cryos followed with a sinking feeling in his stomach.


	20. Gone, But Not Forgotten

Cryos waited impatiently as the ship came in for a slow landing.

Kentra and Yamna stood silently, they could both feel it now. Cryos could feel the tension in the air, but he still couldn't tell what was wrong.

The small transport ship finally touched down on the landing pad and the hatch opened. Several more moments passed before Pahrac slithered out, followed by Traitin. Both looked sullen.

"Hay!" Cryos said cheerfully. "I saw the Death Star explode! Good job guys!"

"We… experienced some problems." Traitin grumbled.

"But you guys made it!" Cryos still wanted everything to be ok. "Now where's Mazzark? I bet he surprised you, huh Pahrac?"

"Yes, he did." Pahrac said softly. "Until the end, he surprised me."

Cryos's smile slowly faded. "What do you mean 'until the end'?"

"We could not get into the final chamber to initiate the self destruct sequence." Pahrac said. "There was only a small hole into the room. I could not fit through. Mazzark volunteered for the job, even knowing the room was full of deadly radiation. I stayed with him until the end. It was very quick, he never made it out. He was truly a brave warrior, and I feel honored to have known him."

"But… no…" Cryos sunk to his knees. "That shouldn't have happened."

Cryos gave off a sudden flare of energy and flew into the sky. Moments later he was above the atmosphere.

……………………………………

Hours later, Kentra floated up to him in her spacesuit.

He had found a deep crater on one of Courosant's moons to sulk in. He'd been wondering how long they would leave him alone.

Kentra had tracked him down on her own.

She sat by him and held out her hand, revealing the tiny earpiece and throat patch Washu had designed for communication in vacuum so many years ago.

Cryos put them on but didn't say anything.

"You wanna talk?" Kentra asked.

"Not really." Cryos put his hands behind his head and lay back in the moon dust.

She lay next to him and sat in silence for several minutes before saying, "I've lost a lot of people over the years. It never gets any easier."

"No, it doesn't." Cryos agreed. "But I suppose I should be used to it. I just didn't expect Mazzark to die on the mission. I was worried about Traitin, but Mazzark was too good. I never thought it would turn out like this."

"I'm sorry." Kentra inched closer to him. "It can't help that you couldn't even recover his body. At least then you'd have something to bury."

Cryos sat up suddenly. "What did you say?" He demanded.

"I'm sorry?"

"After that."

"You'd have something to bury?"

"What is this, a comedy routine? In between those!"

"You couldn't recover his body?"

"Of course! That's it!" Cryos exclaimed and leapt to his feet.

"I don't follow…" Kentra said.

"That's alright, just come with me!" Cryos grabbed her hand and flew back to the planet at top speed.

He spotted a group of Kentras resistance troops rounding up a large troop of Yamna's army. With their leader gone, they offered little resistance.

Cryos landed next to the group leader with Kentra still in tow.

"General Kentra!" The man exclaimed. "We are arresting Yamna's troops. We trust you defeated her?"

"Actually, no. She's on our side now." Cryos responded even though the question was not directed at him.

"But…" The man stuttered. "She's the enemy!"

Kentra stepped in. "She was being controlled by the ghost of an ancient Sith Lord. We defeated him with her help. She has earned a chance at the very least."

"Enough of that though." Said Cryos. "Have any of you seen Draco?"

"He came by a few minutes ago." The man responded. "He was muttering something about weevils stealing his socks… what that is supposed to mean I have no idea."

Cryos sighed. "Very well, carry on then." And with that he flew away.

Kentra was right on his heals. "Will you tell me what you're up to?"

"I don't want to get my hopes up any more than they already are. It's a long shot, but there's still a chance."

He flew to Imperial Tower, and after a brief stop in the kitchens where he filled his pockets with fresh fruit, and another to pick up his staff, went to the highest antenna on the roof.

Sure enough, Draco was napping there, using a sock as a sleeping bag.

"Five more minutes!" He squawked.

"No more minutes. Spaceship now." Cryos responded and used the elastic in the sock as a slingshot to fire the tiny lizard into the air.

Draco transformed into his spaceship form. "I'd better get overtime for this." He rumbled.

"Sure, I'll pay you double." Kentra reassured him.

"Yay!" He cheered and Kentra and Cryos climbed into his mouth.

They were circling the blasted remains of the Death Star before Draco exclaimed "HAY!"

"What is it?" Kentra asked.

"Double nothing is still nothing."

She feigned surprise. "So it is! How about I triple it then?"

Draco gasped. "You're the best boss ever!" He exclaimed.

"You're good at this." Cryos muttered to her.

"Years of practice." She responded.

Cryos chuckled, and then spoke loudly. "Draco, I want you to scan the wreckage of the Death Star. We're looking for remains of living creatures."

The tactical display lit up. It appeared that most of the people on the Death Star had managed to escape before it exploded, but those that hadn't were spread evenly over the inside of the quantum armor shell in a thin jelly-like layer.

Cryos decided to gamble that the armor around the room Mazzark had died in might have survived.

"Scan for a small piece of biomatter near the core." He ordered.

Draco was silent for a few moments. "I don't see-" He began then stopped. "Wait, I found something. Very small."

The location appeared on the screen.

"I'm going out." Cryos announced and dove into the airlock.

It didn't take him long to find the location Draco had indicated. Most of the inside of the Death Star was vaporized, leaving only the shell and some of the outermost structure. But the quantum armor around the main control room had protected it.

Mostly anyway.

Even the quantum armor had cracked under the intense pressure. Cryos was able to pull the crack wide enough to get inside.

Once in, he quickly found what he was looking for.

A small, black lump lay in his palm as he flew back to Draco. Just one glance said that the creature was dead. If the radiation hadn't killed him the intense heat had fried him, leaving him nothing but a six legged charcoal briquette.

"I'm sorry." Kentra said when she saw the remains in his hand. "You didn't really expect him to be alive, did you?"

"I kinda hoped," He admitted. "but no, I didn't expect it. However, that's not why I brought him back. The Lalz have an interesting system of reproduction. Unique in all the Universes I've seen. They develop two to five self-fertile eggs inside their body that only hatch after their parent's death."

"But any eggs would surely have been destroyed by the radiation or the explosion." Kentra said.

"Lalz eggs are truly amazing in what they can survive. Heat, cold, radiation, no problem for them. I don't know what they're made of but I should get Washu to analyze it cause its nearly indestructible. Now, lets see what we have.

Cryos closed his eyes and said "I'm sorry, my friend." as he crushed the tiny body in his hand. It crumbled into dust easily, leaving three tiny white spheres.

He breathed on them, saying "We have to get them to room temperature." And rolled them in his hands to warm them up. The heat of the explosion had dissipated quickly in the cold of space.

After a few minutes of this, he stopped and looked at them for signs of movement. He was quickly rewarded when one of them wobbled and cracked.

Within minutes, all three had hatched, leaving the tiny baby Lalz blinking in the light and staggering around on Cryos's palm.

He held out a piece of fruit he'd collected from the kitchens and they attacked it with vigor, sucking the juices with their tiny tongues.

When all three had eaten their fill Cryos slid them into the cavity in his staff. "Babies need their sleep." He explained.

Kentra had been watching this whole process in amazement. "That's impossible." She declared.

"Never underestimate the Multiverse." Cryos cautioned her. "It has a way of surprising you."


	21. A Reluctant Farewell

Weeks passed and life slowly returned to normal. Courosant was demilitarized, Cryos and Yamna emptied the kitchens repeatedly, Draco caused thousands of credits of property damage.

Cryos wasn't sure exactly when he noticed it, but Yamna defiantly wasn't fitting in to life on the planet.

It was understandable, you don't just come back from the Dark Side. And even when you do, you can't expect people to accept you after being evil. But Cryos felt it was something more. Finally, he decided to confront her about it.

"Hi." He said softly, floating up behind her where she sat at the very top of the Imperial Tower. "You look like you have something on your mind."

She sighed. "This isn't working out." She said.

"What do you mean?"

"This whole 'normal life' thing." She gestured out at the city. "You've done so much for these people. They love you. They overlook Draco. They even tolerate me. But they'll never look at me like they do you."

"Well, it's to be expected that they're still a little afraid of you. But you'll win them over."

She shook her head. "I can hear them. Hear their thoughts. I don't mean to eavesdrop, but it's hard to control all my abilities. It's overwhelming sometimes. But I can hear what they think about me, even now."

"They've heard rumors and terrible stories, you aren't that person anymore." Cryos insisted.

"No, I'm not." She agreed. "But I was once. And just because something is a rumor doesn't mean it isn't true. I did awful things when Darth Posh was controlling me. Things I won't tell you."

"You can tell me anything, I won't think any less of my daughter."

"You don't know what I've done. Mother can tell you some of it, but the worst stories never made it to the public, not even as rumor. Someone has to survive for a story to get out."

"I've been thinking." Cryos said. "I want you to-"

"No." She cut him off. "Going to Luke Skywalkers Jedi academy won't help me. I know all about Kyp and what he did." Kyp was a young Jedi who had gone rogue, stealing an old Imperial super weapon named the Sun Crusher and waging war on the Imperial Remnant. Billions had died when he blew up their stars. "Kyp attacked Imperials. That doesn't make what he did less wrong, but in the eyes of the people it did. Many saw him as a hero. But you, and maybe Luke and Kyp, are the only ones who see me as anything but the enemy."

Cryos sighed and was about to reply when his comlink chirped. "We'll finish this conversation later." He said.

"I'll be here…" She said, staring out over the city.

"What's going on?" He said into the com.

"There's a visitor here to see you." Came a slightly shaky voice through the com.

"Can it wait?"

"No." This wasn't the voice of the com operator. It was a voice like liquid steel. As heavily filtered as its owner was ruthless. It was the voice of Boba Fett. Cryos got a bit nervous and jumped from the rooftop, heading for the com station.

"Oh, hi Fett!" Cryos said in mock cheer as he fell. "I trust you found my storage depot alright?"

"It seems that you… forgot to mention some of your more exotic defensive mechanisms." Fett did not share Cryos's happiness, false or otherwise.

"Nothing you couldn't handle though."

"My ship and armor were heavily damaged. I was forced to, shall I say, extend the bargain slightly in my favor." Cryos could almost (just almost) hear a slight vindictive happiness in his cold emotionless voice.

He forced himself to remain calm. "Oh? How so?" He asked.

"I've made your prototype Sun Crusher my new ship. It only has a single remaining sun detonating missile and some small armaments, but its quantum armor more than makes up for its offensive deficiencies. I feel it's a fair trade for trying to trick me, would you not agree?"

Cryos wasn't sure to be relived or worried. That armor was basically indestructible. Even he would be hard pressed to destroy a ship like the Sun Crusher. On the other hand, the prototype Crusher had only a single shot with the weapon that had earned it its name, Fett would be hesitant to waste it being as he would never get another. Considering some of the things Cryos had laying around in there, it could have been worse.

Around this time Cryos was reaching the com station. He saw the Sun Crusher rise slowly above the station. The external speakers came on with a click.

"Thank you again Cryos." Came Boba Fetts flat voice. Then without another word he zipped off into the sky.

Cryos let him go. At the very least, he knew that Fett wouldn't sell the super weapon to anyone else. He liked to maintain his competitive edge.

Cryos had a brief chat with the security forces about Boba Fett's new acquisition and its impact on Courosant's security measures and went off in search of Luke Skywalker.

He found the Jedi meditating in an empty room in the Imperial Tower overlooking the sunset over the city.

"Luke, I have a problem."

The Jedi opened his eyes but otherwise didn't move. "Are you coming to me to ask me for advice or have you already made your decision."

Cryos gave him a half smile. "As usual, you see through me. I guess both really. I don't want to leave this Universe after working so hard to get back to it."

Luke turned halfway towards him. "Was it this place you wanted to get back to or was it the people in it? Home is the people, not the place. I thought you of all people should know that."

Cryos gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you Luke."

"Will we ever see you again?" The Jedi asked.

"You can count on it." Cryos promised as he left.

…………………………………………………

A few hours later, after giving some advice to the heads of state of the New Republic and collecting Draco, Pahrac, Kentra and the baby Lalz, Cryos returned to the rooftop.

Yamna still sat there, looking over the city's twinkling lights with Traitin sitting by her side. When they saw the group approaching, they scooted a few feet apart.

"Yamna," Cryos said. "are you ready to go?"

"I told you I'm not going to the Jedi academy."

"That's not where we're going." Cryos pressed a button on his glove and a wormhole appeared. "We're going somewhere we can get a fresh start. This time, we'll all be together."

Yamna looked up at him. "But… you're a hero here. You'd give that up for me?"

"We talked it over." Kentra said. "I, for one, would do anything to be a family again. And I want to see you happy."

She looked to Pahrac, who just nodded.

Draco scampered across the rooftop, playing with the baby Lalz. They seemed to enjoy hunting him, and their stings knocked him out and kept him out of trouble for several hours. Truly, a win-win situation if there ever was one.

Yamna burst into tears and ran to her parents. "Thank you…" She whispered and walked through the portal.

Cryos nodded to Kentra and Pahrac and they followed her through.

He tossed the now unconscious Draco through the portal and scooped the three baby Lalz into the hollow space in his staff.

"What about me?" Traitin asked.

"You're free to do as you please." Cryos turned slowly towards him. "You're a hero here. You can live it up. I trust you to not abuse your power. Your training is basically complete. In your culture, you would be entering the age of adulthood. Act it."

"If it's ok," Traitin said, "I'd like to go with you." He paused. "Um, Cryos?"

"Yes?"

"About what you saw when you came up here-" He started before Cryos cut him off.

"Don't tell me, I don't want to hear about it." Cryos patted him on the back. "You're a good kid, and I like you. So here's all I'm going to say on the subject: Hurt her, and your body parts will be scattered across planets in a hundred planets in a dozen different Universes."

The Felon gulped nervously and Cryos gave him a shove through the wormhole.

He smiled and shook his head as he took one last look out over the city. He refused to say goodbye, because this wasn't a good bye. He had promised Luke and himself that he would come back someday.

But for now, he had a new life to look forward to.

Cryos turned and walked through the wormhole. It slowly spiraled and shrunk, and finally, vanished with a flash of light.


End file.
